A/N: I had rewritten this chapter twice before I settled on this. Originally, it was going to follow my POV the entire time, but then I figured: Hey, why not put in a different POV? I mean, everyone else did it and-... You know what? Just read it.
Goodbye cruel world... Why does it have to end like this? Why does it have to-?
"Knock yourself out!" I hear a familiar voice yell. This is followed by a loud clash of metal against metal, before I hear a light thud.
Curiosity quickly overtakes me, and I peak open an eye. Standing over me is none other than Niro, holding an opened palm and a bloody axe. I let a smile come over my face, before being hit by the realization of the fact that nobody else is awake.
"What did you DO?!" I yell, pointing towards his bloodied axe.
He looks towards his axe, and then turns towards the piles of our friends behind him. "What? I just hit them in the head with this axe. Did it knock them out? Yes. Do they have concussions? Most definitely." With that, I grab his hand and get pulled to my feet.
"Ready to end this?" I ask. I grab Draiotoll from the now unconscious dark knight, and point towards the coffin.
As an answer, Niro smiles. "Ready." he responds.
With that, I squint my eyes and open up the coffin, expecting to see a mutilated corpse inside of it. But no. No corpse, no urn, not even a doll. Just a tome. An opened book sitting in the center of the coffin.
"You've got to be kidding me." I mutter under my breath.
Hrm? Why is the tome glowing suddenly? W-wait a second...
Oh dear.
A/N: The other POV starts from here, just so it's clear. Hah, I find it funny that I had people wait two months for that cliffhanger to finish, and it only ended with me falling unconscious again. *sigh* I really need to treat you guys better.
Morning at last? Great.
What's today? Saturday? Sunday? Monday? I hope not Monday, I could use something besides school.
I open I eyes, taking note of my surroundings.
Wait... Am I in a tent? WAT IS DIS?! Last I checked, I didn't go camping. Actually, haven't been camping since I was in Boy Scouts, but I quit that years ago.
I quickly unzip the tent flap and walk outside.
Just outside of the tent is an extinguished campfire. Nothing else. But I am in the middle of a forest, if that means anything. But still, where am I? I mean, neither of my parents are here, unless... Wait... I look down at my clothing. It's cloaks. And they have some sort of weird symbols on them. I'm pretty sure I don't own anything like this, nor do I even know anyone who WOULD wear these. Hold on.
I peak back inside of the tent, before noticing a leather sack. Hm?
I quickly open the back and spill it's contents onto the ground. Let's see... There's some coins... Is that GOLD? I hope I'm rich... Other than that, there's... is that a witch's hat? Well, it doesn't look rough, it just looks really soft and fluffy. Er, feels. Logic, Y U MESS UP?
Lastly... There's that book. It's weird. It has no title, it's only a sort of light green with a strange rune on the front. What does it even say? I pick up the book and quickly flip a few pages into it.
...
What? This isn't English... this is... Wait, how can I read this?
I skim through the first few lines, eventually reaching the bottom of the page. To my surprise, the page simply disintegrates. The world around me goes silent as I stare at the spot that once held the page.
"What the fu-" Before I can finish, a powerful gust of wind knocks me off of my feet, sending me barreling across the forest.
Wha... What... What the...? WHAT WAS THAT?! MAGIC?! AM I IN THE FUTURE?! ANSWER ME UNIVERRRRRSSSSEEEEEE!
Ugh, I already have to explain it to someone else tonight... or tomorrow. Whenever he wakes up. HUH? WHAT? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?
Wow, Alan didn't overreact this much. Alan?! ALAN?! How do you know him? What do you mean he didn't overreact?! Is he here?! ANSWER ME!
I'm Jeremiah. As I said, I will explain everything as soon as I can. Really? REAAAALLLYY? You don't have time to explain this? THIS IS BULLSH-
No, Tom. LATER! L-A-T-E-R. Goodbye. No! Don't leave! JEEEERRREEEEMIIIAAAAHHHH!... Ugh, I guess I'll need to find out where I am, first.
I walk back up the campsite and pick up the scattered items. Except the hat, which seems almost entirely useless to me. SCREW DAT HAT!
With everything gathered, I leave the site and venture out of the forest. Siiigggghhhh... I miss my laptop.
This journey was uneventful. All I did was travel for a few hours, before winding up in a small village. It's medieval, sadly, so this isn't the future. Oh, I would have loved to be in the future. And one more thing that I had noticed: I don't have my glasses anymore, yet I can see perfectly.
"Hello, good sir!" a villager greets me. "Are you a traveler?"
I simply turn towards him. "Sure. Whatever." I say.
"Then perhaps you should stay at the Golden Flowers Inn. It's the best in town." he says. The hell kind of name is Golden Flowers? Though it may be comfortable, so I may check it out.
"Where is it?" I ask him.
"It's the third building to the right, and has a flower sign on it. You can't miss it." Hrm. Alright.
I walk over to the inn, swinging open the doors and looking inside. Actually, this is nice. It's clean, has a warm fire, and it smells like cookies. Yum... Cookies...
"Welcome, traveler." a woman, probably the innkeeper, greets me. She looks at me for a minute, before turning her gaze to my clothes. "Hm... Are you a mage? We don't get many of them around here..." Oh, that was magic? Heh. Alan is gonna be jealous. Alright, I will stay here.
"Yeah. I was just camping out in the forest before I came here. I don't really know where I'm going." I respond.
She looks up at me, a look of pity spreading onto her face. "Oh, poor thing. It must have been terrible sleeping out in that storm. If you want, I could let you stay here for today, no charge necessary. Perhaps tomorrow I can arrange a ride to Ylisstol for you." she smiles at me. Wow. A bit too trusting much? Oh well, free things don't hurt at all.
"What? That ain't fair!" I hear a rough voice pipe up from the other side of the room. "I paid hard earned gold to stay here, and then Mr. Fancypants gets to march on in here and stay here for free?!" I turn around to see a rough man in fur armor approach me. I see a few others in the room get up and draw weapons, with a couple of other people just getting out of sight.
"What'ya have to say for yourself?!" the man who I assume is the leader jabs me in the chest which one finger. "Mage or not, I'll have your stupid head on a silver platter!" He draws an axe an lifts it above him, causing the innkeeper to scream. Course, this distracts him and gives me enough time to pull out the book. Is it a tome? I don't know what people call it.
"How about no." I say. I crack open the book and point my hand at the man. I think that's what I do? I quickly read through a page of the book, before it disintegrates. I simply smile at the confused faces on the men's faces as a powerful blast of wind knocks them off their feet. The wind also knocks a small hole in the wall, which I proceed to escape the building from.
What? Why is everything on fire?!
I turn around to see a group of similarly bulky men rushing in my direction.
"C'mon boys! Grab anything shiny and burn everything else. Leave no survivors!" another man commands.
... SCREW THIS! I'm not fighting a bunch of giant men. I turn around and run away from the village.
"I wonder if Alan would have run..." I say under my breath. "Not that it matters too- WAUGH!"
I bump into something and am sent tumbling to the ground. I turn to see more men coming my way. Which group is it? I have no idea.
Wait?! Book? Where's the book?! I shuffle around the ground desperately trying to find it.
I feel around the ground for a minute, yet fail to find the book.
"There he is boys!" a feeling of dread shivers down my spine as I hear an all too familiar voice behind me.
I quickly get on my feet to see three axe men rushing towards me.
Craaaaap! I'm gonna dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
"Heh. I'm gonna savor every second of killin' ya." one of the men mutters, lifting his menacing axe into the air.
I brace myself for the impact, peeking at the large man.
Suddenly, I hear a loud burst, followed by a large ball of light hitting the man and knocking him off his feet. Wait- is he on fire? Okaaaaaay...
Ugh, the smell of burning human flesh is disgusting. I guess I'll have to get used to it, though.
"I believe this is yours." I hear a less menacing voice, a contrast to the others.
I turn... again... and see a new face holding out a green book- my book, to be exact. He's wearing clothes nearly identical to mine, which may explain the fireball, if he's a mage, only he's wearing the weird hat that I had thrown away.
"Thanks." is all I have time to mutter, before taking my book and pointing my palm towards one of the two remaining men.
I crack open the book and mutter a few lines, sending a large blast of wind out of my palm. The two remaining men are knocked into the air, and proceed to be blasted by the other man's fireballs.
"Interesting." the man mutters. "That tome isn't like any other of wind magic, what kind of tome is that?"
...What? I simply stare at the man, a confused look passed over my face.
"Perhaps it would be wise for us to introduce ourselves first." the man shakes his head.
"I am Tom: wandering mage... I guess." I explain. I look up at him, as he takes off his hat and reveals a head of pale blue hair. Actually, I've never seen anyone with that same color of hair. Is it even normal for people to have that-
"I am Laurent, a mage of arcane and scientific studies." Laurent gives a polite bow, before leaning back up and putting his hat on.
"Science..?" I raise an eyebrow. "Perhaps you could share your knowledge with me, I have a vast understanding of the world around me." I hide a sinister grin at the thoughts of sharing my understanding of my world and seeing his reaction. This may very well be the start of a beautiful friendship.
A/N: POV switch again, back to me this time. *cough* incoming info-dump *cough*
Uggghh... What happened..? I open my eyes and investigate my surroundings.
A cheesy black room. Perfect.
So I'm all alone, I presume?
No. I'm here. Who are you?
Why, would you ask such a brash question to dear Mother, Alan? How do you know me?
Why would I not know the general's so-called descendent, the- Sorry mother, only one deity per dream!
Jeremiah?
Hah, I was hear first, do you actually think you can- OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!
Fine. The voice fades, as does the darkness. The room goes from black to white as Jeremiah's familiar voice fills my mind.
Sorry I was late Ala- Ravel. I had some other business to attend. Whatever. Just explain why I'm here already.
Really? You aren't even going to ask? Trust me, I'm curious, but I don't care that much about what the hell you were doing.
Alright, but just a warning, it's not going to be me who is doing the explaining. Meh. Whatever.
... You are a bit off today. What? Nah. I feel fine.
Whatever. The point is: I'm not the only one that brought you here, so allow me to introduce him. The room ripples for a minute, before a man with smooth black hair appears before me.
"Jeremiah, I can introduce myself, you know." he yells into the white room. Whatever, but we don't have too much time. The man shakes his head. "I'm Sygil, and obviously, I'm going to explain why you and your friend are here." What he said.
"Alright, just don't make it too confusing." I respond. A convenient chair appears behind me, and I sit down on it. Sygil does the same.
"First things first: I'll have to explain the arrangement of known existence. Try to keep up, okay?" I nod my head as an answer. "Firstly, your universe is the central universe. Almost all universes branch off of yours as either alternate realities, or powerful ideas that were imagined hard enough or created. In a nutshell: most video games and a portion of books have created universes. However, the ones that don't differ too much from our current reality create Outrealms. I think you know what those are already: alternate realities ranging from slightly different to drastically different, but I will say that they form a lot easier than many of the universes created. As a matter of fact, you have created many Outrealms on your own. including the one that you currently reside in." ... WHAT?! I feel slightly guilty for playing Fire Emblem on Classic, now.
"Yes, it's a lot to swallow, but try to keep up. You see, each universe has one or more main gods- Naga in this case- depending on the universe, and each live at a sort of central hub stationed in the core of existence. It so happens that there is a major city... or whatever, it's bigger than your planet, by no doubt... where most celestial beings live. That's where Jeremiah and I are from. The occupations of afterlife guardians depends. Some are simple universal merchants, including most of the Anna sisters, actually, while others are Outrealm guardians like myself and Jeremiah. We're created along with the Outrealms, with myself actually being created along with this one." What does this have to do with me? It sounds like a bunch of lore, if anything.
"It is lore. But ignoring you, each millennia, the Celestial Games are held." I don't know what that- "Be patient! As I was going to say, the Celestial Games are held each thousand years in order to determine a new Central Guardian. These are people granted the highest honors and have major control over a lot of the universes and Outrealms. As a matter of fact, Old Hubba was our last Central Guardian, but he is retired now. in the games, normal Outrealm guardians compete by taking normal citizens from the main universe and attempting to adapt them to a new universe. A catch: they can't die. Ever. That's one of the hardest parts of the competition. It doesn't matter how, be it disease, old age, or even embarrassment, if you die, you're out."
Stop stop stop stop stoooop! So is it just a coincidence that self-inserts are based off of the Celestial Games?
"Entirely. But as for other rules: the less you are forced to modify the contestant's physical or mental ability, the more points that you receive. Logically, the one with the most wins."
Not to interrupt this happy little info-dump... again, but haven't I changed too much? I mean, I've most certainly changed mentally, and I have a higher strength and stamina. Aren't you losing?
"No. Our loophole around that was soul-merging: a process in which a contestants are merged with a man or woman of similar mental or physical build. That's what we did with both you and Geoff. Hah. Convenient that your closest match was this Outrealm's Ravel, isn't it?"
Yeah, it's almost like a self-insert cliché.
Sygil and I both share a brief laugh before being interrupted.
Sorry to disturb you, but Ala- Ravel-UGH- is being awoken. We'll have to continue this conversation tomorrow or later.
Really? Does this always have to happen during important conversations, or some...
thing...?
"You up, Ray?" My head's spinning, I can't tell who it is. I slowly peek open my eyes to see a dark silhouette leaning over me.
Niro? "What... happened...?" despite being perfectly awake just moments earlier, I can barely even speak.
"Same thing happened to you that did the others: you were possessed by that damn tome. Luckily, I you were already weakened, so I didn't hit you too hard. The others still aren't awake- well, except one." Well that explains my head, and my- wait, other one?
I hear footsteps coming towards me, and lift myself up to see the supposed cult-leader Dark Knight walking toward me. She doesn't have that far-out look anymore, thankfully, so I guess she isn't possessed anymore.
"Greetings, Ravel. I'm Ayla." I suppose Niro introduced me, likely the others too. Funny, her voice sounds like Tiki's mixed with one of my friends... Susan. Heh. Wonder what she's up to.
That's unimportant... Why is my head throbbing? I snap back into attention as I see a green glow emanating from in front of me. Ayla's holding a healing staff. So she's like a mounted sage? Valkyrie? OP much?
"You can heal too? What?" I raise an eyebrow, which is kind of hard when your head is throbbing.
"My mother was a Falcon Knight; knew how to use a staff. Shame that I couldn't have her Pegasus, but Shadow is good enough of company." she turns and looks out the room, as if reminiscing about some old times. Meh.
"So, when do you think that the others are going to wake up?" I turn my gaze towards Niro, who is just sitting there expressionless.
"Two hours, three? I dunno. I'm tempted to explore this place a bit more."
My head's stopped throbbing, so I think that I'm better. I stretch up my legs and climb onto my feet- I was in a bed? Well, where else would I be... but.. Meh. I may as well look around while I still can.
A/N: Eventful chapter, was it not? So I have a large portion of the info-dump done, there isn't much left to that, and introduced a couple of new characters. An before you ask, Tom is actually based off one of my best friends, and may very well help me start having more frequent updates soon. Course, didn't go by his real name. Neither does Geoff. Actually, I don't either. Yeah, I hate using my real name in anything, but it doesn't matter too much. Alan is still close to my real name.
So... Yeah. Review.
Ray/Mak/Alan out