So I showed my brother the fanfic and he held me at gunpoint and forced me to write a first chapter of when the circus group got summoned. You guys can thank him
Made before episode 4 of TADC, saw the trailer and it was incredible, though I worry how it will retroactively affect everything I wrote so far
I'm trying to write everything before the third wave but I'm a bit stuck at the beginning, especially at when and how Jax gets in his big incident that makes him less of an ass, but I'm trying and if you guys have any suggestions I would love to hear them
Pomni was sleeping, after possibly staying awake for far too long at night, but after yesterday's adventure who could sleep? The maniac misadventure of the musical monolith was one of those things that should be fun, a temple filled with puzzles involving music and instruments should be a great activity, unless a purple fu@$# with long ears makes you get a note wrong in the final puzzle, making a trap door to open below you and send you to not a pit of spikes or snakes, but a pit with air horns on the walls that all went off at the same time as loud as possible
She would have lost her hearing if it wasn't for the fact that this was just a digital avatar, but the buzzing persisted for hours after, thankfully it was gone now, otherwise she would have abstracted if she had to deal with every one of Caine's shenanigans with a insufferable buzzing to follow
"EVERYONE! TO THE MAIN STAGE! IS TIME FOR THE THEME SONG ROUTINE!!!!!" speaking of the devil, Caine's obnoxious voice screamed to possibly wake up everyone who had actually slept. The jester sighed annoyed, only hoping today wouldn't involve loud noises
She exited the room as she made her way through the corridor to the usual spot the group met and lined up for any morning announcement
"Hey pom's, how's the hearing?" A voice called from behind her, the jester didn't bother to look back as she knew the speaker from his tone, Jax the purple rabbit menace. The guy who made the whole circus be more unbearable than it already was, calling him a bad boy would be an understatement, he was a full on psycho. Throwing "friend" and foe alike to danger in pro of his own fun, and it was mostly his fellow circus mates that were made victims of his antics "Or do you want me to speak louder?"
"I want you to die in a hole" Pomni replied but he simply chuckled at that, pleased that a dead threat was thrown his way
"I second that" an unenthusiastic speaker said as a amalgam of colorful shapes and parts joined in as Zooble walked among them, probably Jax's greatest hater in the circus. The amalgam was very unenthused and apathetic at times, annoyed at everything, though it made sense considering their everything was this circus, Zooble kept to themselves and Pomni was happy to leave that be
The three entered the main area and saw three people waiting in line, a ragdoll, a king's chess piece and a bundle of ribbons with a mask for a face, as they joined them in the line
"Good morning Pomni, did you recover from instead or do you need more time until the buzzing goes away?" Ragatha, the walking and speaking ragdoll said as she looked at Pomni with that one eye of relaxed concern. She was Jax's opposite, while he did his best to be a d@#k, she did her best to be a saint. She was the one Pomni got the most along with, she wasn't without flaws as she was a bit of pushover, letting others use her as a doormat at times all for the sake of not upsetting them, it didn't happen often with the others but Jax threw her in harm's way more than you could count at with your hands and feet
"It's gone now, thanks for asking" Pomni responded as she looked at Ragatha with her pinwheel eyes at the doll
"I wonder what will happen today? Maybe we will have something more tame than usual!" The mass of ribbons known as Gangle said optimistically as she had her comedy mask on, as she is usually incredibly depressed and sad when tragedy mask is revealed whenever the comedy mask breaks, which was often
"Do you guys hear this weird magical chanting? Sounds like japanese with a European accent..." Kinger the living chess piece and resident mentally broken member of the cast asked as he looked around. He was here in the circus the longest and lost his wife to abstraction and he never has been the same since, usually a mess of a man that caused them some minor trouble due to not thinking the most normally, but he was chill to hang out with, specially in the dark as he always seemed to become more lucid the less light there was present
"WELCOME MY GLOBULAR GOLFERS!!! ARE YOU READY FOR ANOTHER DAY OF WONDER AND AMAZEMENT?!?!" The ringleader asked with a booming voice as he stared down at the cast with bulging eyes popping out of his mouth. "AFTER TODAY'S INTRO WE ARE HAVING A CLASSIC HOMEBREW--"
"AAAAAAAHHHH!" A scream caught everyone's attention as they looked to where it came, Ragatha. A she clutched at her arm while falling to her knees
"My arm! It feels like it's burning!" The doll expressed as the rest looked to her, seeing that her left arm was glitching like crazy as it was becoming a shining luminous white
"Ragatha! are you-" Pomni reached out a hand to her only to see the tips of her finger were also glitching, that's when she felt it. A sensation under her skin that felt like she had dipped her hands into lava as the white glitching began spreading to the rest of her hands, she understood why Ragatha had screamed, this hurt like hell as the jester fell backwards while letting out a ear piercing scream
The others took a step back as they observed the pair, wondering if they were abstracting, but that was usually a black glitching and it didn't just happen out of the blue like-- they fell as well, weak and pained as they saw they were also glitching, as desperation washed over them
"F@#! Caine! The hell is this?!" Zooble screamed as they looked at Caine through raging eyes before closing them as they rolled in the ground in pain
"I'm not doing anything..." Caine spoke in an oddly quieter tone as he observed the scene confused. As he then pulled up an invisible screen of coding and data to assess what was happening
"Uhm the code seems fine, I think there might be something wrong with the computer, but I will see if I-" Caine stopped speaking, his eyes turning to blue screens as he also began to glitch, and with that the entire circus seemed to be succumbing to whatever was affecting them as textures were being mixed up and unloaded, the objects began to stop working within the physiques engine as they were falling on through the floor or floating upwards and bouncing around the room.
All the while the cast was going to some ungodly pain as the glitching spread to the rest of them, it was like their flesh was being pulled apart and glued back together to their bones that were being turned to powder while they were burning in fire, the only sounds filling the circus were their screams of pain the sound of two or more collision boxes getting stuck on each other
The bodies of the cast began to emit a strong white glow that soon enveloped the entire circus, they gave one last painful yell before the light stopped, and where once was the circus grounds, stood nothing in the digital void
"Uhuuuuuughhh... Ouch, my head..." Pomni mumbled as she slowly got up, placing a hand to her aching forehead only to be greeted by a cold feeling, she looked at her hands and saw that they hand metallic gloves with long claws in her fingers, with gems in the back of her palms, one red and one blue, that was odd, she looked around to see she was in some type of meadow
"The hell? Where am I?" She asked herself as she observed the environment around her, it looked... Beautifully real, very different from the circus usual visuals and textures of the circus, as detailed as some things were and how good the lighting could be, it was always easy to tell that it was digital from the way things were rendered and textured as it could never really compare to reality. But this was different, it was almost surreal, she turned around and was shocked by the sight awaiting her
"Whoa!" She said as she saw familiar figures getting up through pained effort like her, her fellow circus mates. But they looked very different, Ragatha for example seemed to have gotten bigger and wider as she was twice Pomni's length now, her once mitten like hands now having a proper set of five fingers, her skin having the texture of Lyon now as well as having a darker tone than her usual beige skin, her dress had a lot more details like additional stitches
Jax had the same overalls, but his physique was different, as he was still very slim but his torso was a bit larger, and this realistic glow up made him look unhealthily skinny, if it wasn't the barely noticeable muscle definition in his arms and torso, she could swear he was just skin and bones. his once round and flat face now having a snout like most animals, with him having actual fur now as well as a cotton tail.
Gangle's ribbon body was the same, though it seemed to be composed of a single string of ribbon now instead of being separate parts, it now had wrapped around itself in a humanoid shape but with a more skeletal look, as her torso looked like a rib cage and her legs were connected to a knot that resembled a bone pelvis, her mask had a more intricate design, with golden details around the edges of the mask and the eyes
Zooble looked almost the same, only having more realistic texturing to them, although their wacky proportions seemed to have been adjusted to fit the way most normal bodies looked, they did look a bit taller because of that
And Kinger was pretty much the same as before, with the only real things being that his eyes were a bit more closer and integrated to his head instead of being completely out of it and held on by a invisible force, the thing that caught Pomni off guard was the fact his rope was open on the lower half, revealing legs covered in dark silk pants with black and white shoes. Yes, legs, that was probably the strangest thing to Pomni and she didn't know why as it should be such a minute thing but it was confusing her brain too much as that looked like a front against everything she got used to
They all did share something with her, as they had metallic silver items in their hands, Jax had a hammer, Kinger had gauntlets, Zooble had a axe, Gangle had a pair of Chakrams, and Ragatha had a silver shield, each with a different colored gem
"R-r-ragatha? Gangle? Jax?" Pomni asked scared as she took a step closer and reached out a hand to them, Ragatha looked at her as her vision became less blurry only to have shock clear in her face
"Oh my god, what happened to you Pomni?! You look... Different" Ragatha said as Pomni's proportions had changed and her outfit as well, her jester cap seemed bigger and had bells at the end, and her proportions were off from how usually exaggerated they were
"I could say the same about all of you!" Pomni replied back as the cast went to look at each other and what they could of their own bodies, their surprise was immense as most of them had gotten very used to the way the others and themselves looked from their time in the circus, even the minor changes of Kinger and Zooble were putting them off as they all felt like they were staring at different people
"Whoa, were so high definition and the textures are so life-like! And the new designs look so good!" Gangle exclaimed cheerfully as she threw her hands up, comedy mask in full effect as it gave her boundless optimism "Did Caine install some sort of texture pack? The grass actually looks and feels like grass!"
"Uhm... Why do we have weapons?" Kinger asked as he poked at his metal gauntlets, the others also took the moment to study their weapons, their intricate design and color palette of gold, silver with black details as well with the gems engraved on them gave them a royal or even divine appearance. But they noticed something
"Uhm... Guys? These things aren't coming off" Pomni said as she tried to pull out her metal claws, but was finding incredible difficulty in the act, with a grunt and with all the strength she could muster, she was able to pull it off from her left hand, only to see it was stuck to her right hand, she tried shaking it off but it didn't fall. The others looked at Pomni's difficult and tried to drop the weapons but they didn't seem affected by gravity as they realized something, the weapons were seemingly attached to them as no amount of pulling or shaking worked, the closest one of them got was Ragatha and Gangle throwing their weapons away, but they reappeared in a glowing flash back at their bodies
"Ah! It doesn't come off! It's trying to mend with our skin to eat us from the insides!" Kinger screamed as he ran away while his hands stayed there in place, before starting to automatically make their return to join him, which only caused him to scream louder as he ran in circle
"What if this is some sort of dream or maniac episode? Because if it is then I don't want to wake up!" Gangle said as she brought up a fair question, what was preventing all of this being a delirium or wacky dream brought out of their heads, and if that was the case did that mean that they were in a lucid dream now that they were reflecting upon it?
Slam! Before any of them could react or prevent it, Jax had gone ahead and slammed his hammer against Gangle as she fell to the ground while having a metal mallet crushing her face
"Jax!" Ragatha shouted as she pulled the rabbit away and stared at him with an angry frown at the unprompted attack to a fellow circus mate "What are you doing?!"
"What? You can't feel pain in a dream, I was just helping" Jax said as his justification didn't pass with the others as though he was right about not feeling pain in dreams, you also shouldn't feel pain when playing videogames and their experience in the circus proved that wrong, it also didn't help that any creditability his argument might had was undermined when a sadist was the one saying it
"Holy fuck, are you okay Gangle?" Pomni said as she went to check on Gangle, who lifted herself up as her head bobbed side to side a little, a crack formed on her face as it broke in half, revealing her tragedy mask, that had blue details instead of the yellow ones of the comedy mask, having a single tear drawn under the left eye
"My comedy mask..." She said as she sobbed silently as she picked up her broken mask, about a minute in and it already broke, she wallowed in pity as it seemed some things would always be the same independent of setting. Pomni felt bad for the ribbon girl until she felt a uneasy feeling, turning back to see the rest looking at her
"Why are you all looking at me like that?" The jester asked concerned as they looked at her like she had committed some cardinal sin against god itself from how opened wide their eyes were, treating to fall off their heads, which did happen some times in the circus
"... Fuck! shit! Mother fucker! Bitch! Anus! Penis! Whore! Cock gobbler! Suck my fat dick and lick my ass you faggots! Stick a-" Jax exclaimed every swear, every insult and obscenity he could imagine for the world to hear. It was so much vulgarity that even Zooble, who had a big tolerance for this type of stuff was getting offended. But that proved one thing
"Yes, no fucking filter! Haha! Yeah, we definitely aren't in the circus, Caine would never allow any of that!" Jax commemorated as he felt like falling backwards to the ground after spending so much air with things that would be better left unsaid
"... Could this be one of Caine's adventures? Even with the swearing?" Pomni asked as she was still reluctant in believing in false hope before getting her expectations crushed somehow, it happened too often, she didn't want to get her hopes up only for it to be revealed it was all some trick or shenanigan from that dumb as bricks A.I.
"Don't know, it doesn't feel like it, doesn't look like it and I don't think that part where the circus seemingly crashed was part of it" Ragatha said as she reminisced about what lead them to this, that whole crash out couldn't have been some elaborate prank by Caine for a adventure. It hurt like hell as if they were being ripped apart to the point she thought they were abstracting. And Caine going into blue screen when it happened also did not seem like something he would do intentionally or not, it just didn't match any of the patterns or routines she saw the ringleader pull during her time there
"So does that mean... We're out of it? We escaped the circus?" Gangle asked and the rest all tensed up, escape from that infantile purgatory... It was enough to shed a tear if true, heck, enough to make any of them go into a full emotional breakdown and unleash a flow of tears and laughter. There was only one problem...
"If we were, shouldn't we be, I don't know? People! We're still the same bunch of freaks as in that game!" Zooble expressed their frustration while pointing out the flaw with that thought, if they had escaped then they shouldn't be the digital avatars they were in the circus, they should be real human people that they barely remember being.
"Maybe we got sent to a different game when the circus glitched?" Gangle suggested with a saddened frown, it sounded really dumb on concept alone and that's not even mentioning the logistics of it, but that made Kinger genuinely stop and reflex on it as his hand went to where his chin should be had him have a face
"You know, that probably makes as much sense as any other explanation" Kinger said as the rest had to agree with him on that, whatever explanation there was for this conundrum was so beyond their understanding that Gangle's theory could be valid, maybe they were in a different game, maybe the circus got updated, maybe they had collectively abstracted and now are in some conjoined mental realm for the critically insane, there were a lot of possible answered that would probably not be satisfactory for them at this point
Ragatha looked away from the group, something grabbing her attention from the distance, she squinted her eyes as she was able to see what looked like a settlement with houses and a dirty road leading in and out of it, where there was what she assumed was carriages moving around as well as beige colored spots that were certainly the inhabitants of the place
"There's a town in the distance, we can go there and ask for information on where we are and what it means" Ragatha says as she points towards the far away place. It was a plan and probably better than just standing here in this grass field all day, and thus they began their walk towards civilization
"Good, we can see if they are mannequins or not" Jax said jokingly but that was a possibility, it would definitely break or make the true nature of their reality here
Their walk was mostly uneventful, though Kinger did point out that he saw a bug that looked like a giant broken eggshell jumping around that they just ignored. When they arrived in the settlement they saw that it was a village that they simply walked inside with ease, they got some odd looks from the citizens that seemed a mix between curiosity, fear and disgust. But the circus cast was more focused on the fact that the people of the village were humans. Not some sort of creature that resembled a person, not blank mannequins lacking distinguishing features, but real human beings that didn't seem to be the same reused models copy and pasted with slight variations, it was insane, they looked like real people just from how detailed they were
"Uh hey there, we are a bit lost and new here, could you show us around?" Pomni asked as she tapped the shoulders of a man who was loading some vases at a carriage, he turned to look at who had asked him only to have his eyebrow to tilt in confusion before shooting high as he fully took the circus group's appearance and that it didn't seem like makeover and costumes, and then his eyes opened wide in fear as he saw they were carrying weapons
"AAAAAAAHHHH!" The man screamed as he ran away, they looked at the man and then at the people around as the scream finally made the whole village take notice of them and have the course of action to take, as they saw more people scream and hide in their houses or nearby buildings
"Jeez, I knew you were ugly but not that much pom's" Jax said as he sent a cheesy grin at her, who instead of replying back annoyed, was more so taken a back by what was happening. These people, the first human people she saw ever since joining the circus... Had ran away screaming from them? That didn't happen before, in none of Caine's adventures were the inhabitants scared of them
The jester standing still like a statue didn't exactly go unnoticed by the others as Ragatha went to place a hand to her shoulder. They heard loud footsteps and turned to see a group of three men in metal armors carrying weapons approaching them, being most likely guards
"Monsters! There they are!" One of them said as he lifted his spear in a defensive stance as he eyed the group
"Shit, what are those things? Never saw any monster like that" another with a bow asked as he looked at the group weirded out, particularly at the rabbit and his strange grin
"Watch out, they are armed and dangerous!" Another also wielding a spear shouted as he pointed his spear at the group
"Hey listen, this is all a big misunderstanding! We aren't monsters just a group of-" Pomni stopped talking as something sank into her skin painfully, she looked to her left leg, were an arrow was currently lodge in, the good thing is that it didn't seem to have hit any important part, the bad thing was that it hurt as hell as she fell back with a pained scream
"Oh god, Pomni!" Ragatha went and helped pick the jester up, helping her up while allowing Pomni to use her as a weight to balance herself
"What are you doing?! You had to wait for a signal before firing!" One of the guards carrying a spear yelled at the one holding a bow, who seemed a bit jumpy and scared
"Sorry sir! But when that thing talked I-"
"Don't shoot unless prompted with reason!" another guard said as he looked at the scared archer, for all they knew these things could just as well be some type of circus performers here to announce a show or ask directions
"Whatever, let's just restrain these freaks and-" the spear guard didn't finish his sentence, as he was struck hard in the head by a hammer, sending him falling to the ground with a bloody nose, the other guards turned to look at the attacker, the purple rabbit with the most demonic grin they ever saw
"Jax, what are you doing?!" Ragatha asked as she looked at the purple menace, who just smiled at her in twisted fashion, an extra creepiness from the way his smile contorted on his new face
"What? They are the ones who started" he simply replied before turning his attention back to the remaining two guards. The one with the spear went to attack him head on while the other with the bow stood back as he prepared his shot, Jax did his best to avoid and block the attacks with his hammer but he had no real combat training so he was being pushed back as he struggled against the guard
Gangle perked up as she saw the guy was about to send an arrow through Jax's head, she thought about if she should intervene or not, this was Jax after all. But her consciousness won the battle of temptation as she looked at the Chakrams in her hands, she lined it up and threw at the guard with the bow, missing spectacularly as they hit a potted plant and the ground, the pot breaking did distract him enough to make him lose the shot, as it passed by Jax's shoulder by a small mark, making a cut in it
"Ow! Hey you son of a bitch!" Jax said as he looked at the guy who shot him with a frown, making him forget about the guard with the spear he was fighting, who took the opportunity to kick the rabbit out of blocking and prepared to stab Jax in the stomach. Jax could feel the world slow down as he saw the tip of the spear going his way, until it was stopped mid air by a pair of floating holding it
"Uh, can we talk things out? I'm still a bit confused about why we are fighting" Kinger asked as he tilted his head while staring at the guard, who shook the floating Appendices away as he turned to look at the rabbit, seeing he had already started to wind up a swing. Barely dodging out of the way as the hammer stuck the earth
"Ugh... Damnit, kill these bastards!" The guard Jax had knocked down previously got up mad as he saw the blood flowing down his nose, feeling humiliated by having his blood drawn by some filthy Demi human who looked like should have died of starvation a few weeks already
The two guards with spears joined side by side as the one with the bow prepared another shot, Jax actually scoffed at that, these guys were fighting back and he still felt that cut on his skin hurting, usually the pain went away in a few seconds in the circus...
The guards charged as the archer fired and Jax gulped as he couldn't block both at the same time, it was when he was about to be stabbed that someone placed themselves between them, as Jax saw Ragatha in front of him blocking the spear strikes with her silver shield while the arrow went and hit her shoulder. Ragatha just saved him, he hated that
"Hey! Get out of this fight dollface! You're ruining my fun!"
"Uh guys? More trouble!" Zooble said as they helped Pomni to stand as they pointed at more guards approaching, about five more and they were already one down
"We are going, end of discussion" Ragatha said as she picked Jax up on her arms and ran as did the rest of the cast, with Zooble carrying Pomni and Gangle holding Kinger's back as for him to not get distracted or lost, Jax did kick and slap her to let him go but she just powered through for the moment
They ran as fast as their bodies could allow it, barely avoiding arrows and spears thrown their way as they retreated into the forest to lose the guards, after running for half an hour it seemed the guards had lost interest in them. Ragatha threw Jax from her arms so he could hit the ground face first, while Zooble placed Pomni to lay against a tree
"It hurts, it hurts so much!" Pomni said through gritted teeth as she stared at the arrow, her hands reached for it to take it off but always retreated back to her sides at the thought of pulling it out
"... Let me help" Ragatha said as she lay on knees close to Pomni, grabbing the arrow as the jester flinched, letting out a loud squeak
"Considering we were being chased, I think she needs something to muffle her screaming" Zooble suggested as they couldn't afford getting found out after escaping, Pomni would definitely scream, they were all aware of that response from the jester. Ragatha held out her arm to Pomni after thinking for a bit
"You can use my arm to squeeze the pain away, don't be scared to bite into it"the ragdoll suggested as she pushed it closer to the jester, Pomni looked at her and then at the arm, as she did as told and placed her open mouth into it, Gangle wished she had a notebook to write this on, prime material right there
"One, two and..." Ragatha counted down as she then pulled out the arrow, Pomni's eyes going wide as she bit into the doll's arm with strength as a visceral scream was muffled through the lyon and cotton stuffing of Ragatha's arm, working to make the sound less noticeable, the doll flinched in pain from the bite but it quickly disappeared "There... It's out"
Pomni huffed as she looked at the arrow, as she and the rest noticed that the tip was covered in a dark red substance, blood.
"Whoa, I thought your blood would be corn syrup, guess I own Bubbles fifteen bucks" Jax joked, no one found it funny as they were more concerned over the fact one of them bleed
In no point at any adventure Caine made for them had there ever been blood, even in the scariest ones had there ever been a showing of the red liquid, Caine's A.I. simply could not allow such a thing as it went against his program and guidelines. In years that some of them had spent there trapped, never once did they got injured and bleed, not from the thousands of times Ragatha got stabbed by knifes and spikes, from the many times Gangle got her face smacked by something, when Zooble was forcefully broken apart by some force or someone. Never had one of them sustained injuries that didn't immediately go away after a few seconds without a single mark or scar to them
And that made a wave of fear and curiosity run down their spines, if Pomni could bleed... Did that mean the same for all of them? And if they could bleed, then they could die as well couldn't they? Suddenly their skin felt so cold, the thought of dying that once seemed so appealing fully presenting itself to them, could they die? What would happen if they died? Would they respawn like in a game or simply return to the circus? Would their consciousness cease to exist anymore or would they go to an afterlife? Questions that would usually discourage suicide instead did nothing to stop them from wondering about their own mortality
They all looked at their weapons, wondering if their purpose was to be used to execute themselves, they could imagine many ways to use them to murder themselves and their colleagues, from gouging out their internal organs to bashing their heads until they were a bloody mess. Such violent thoughts born so suddenly thanks to a single arrow fired at them
They looked at each other with an eerily feeling of perhaps turning this section of the woods into the place to enact their own suicide pact, they took one last look at their weapons. Death was at the palm of their hands, something they craved for a long time... But they were scared rather than excited, death didn't seem as appealing now, if they were still in the circus then maybe but if they had truly escaped the circus then what was the point of dying now that they were free? This whole place was different and new, much more real from how it felt, even though they were just attacked for being stuck in these bodies, there was a sense of wonder and adventure inside of them that hadn't been there in a good old while. Maybe they were just cowards, but they could find solence in the fact they all were cowards
"Here, I don't need the bow as much as you need it right now" Ragatha said as she took out the bow in her head and undid it as she wrapped it on Pomni's wound as a makeshift bandage
Pomni looked at it, the blue cloth getting a little dark red spot as the blood was absorbed by the material, she couldn't help but smile, her face contorting in the unique way only she could, as her expression turned into a maniac grin with her pupils shrinking down a lot while quivering
"Pomni, you have that look again, it's scary..." Gangle commented as Pomni's face of utter insanity was terrifying, Pomni crossed eyes smile broke into light chuckling that quickly became sobbing as she pulled at her cheeks, letting them go to slap herself as her head fell to look at the ground
"I think I hate it here" the jester mumbled melancholic as Ragatha gave her a few taps on the back, sure it was too early to make any assumptions about the place, and maybe things could have gone better if a certain someone in reddish trousers didn't attack a officer of the law that was armed and had backup
"Yeah, that's not a good start. But things could have gone worse" Ragatha said as she tried to cheer the jester up a bit, she had minor success as Pomni held back a tear as she looked at the doll, it was true, it could have been worse
"We should get moving, they will probably send another group to look for us" Zooble said as that was the most logical thing to do at the moment as they assumed that was what the guards of the village would do, find and eliminate them so the village can sleep secure
"Are you good to walk?" Ragatha asked as she got up and offered a hand to the jester, Pomni took her hand and slowly got up, doing a few movements in her leg, it still hurt but not an unbearable amount as she gave the doll a thumbs up as she took a step and almost fell, with Ragatha stopping her from falling by holding her hand "On second thought... You can hold on to me"
The group walked through the forest, avoiding any clearings that could make them too visible, after enough walking though they were tired and with sore feet, so they took a moment to rest beneath the shade of a tree
Pomni kept looking at the blue ribbon turned bandage in her leg, the pain had subdued a bit but it was still there, being the anxious gremlin she was, a thousand worries came to her head as she wondered if she would pass out from blood loss, dreading the possibility that it could get infected, what if it didn't heal? She pulled in breath after breath as she worried over the nature of the wound and what that could mean.
The jester starting to go into a panic attack didn't go unnoticed, as Ragatha quickly came to her side and sat down next to her, the ragdoll idly tapped her fingers together thinking what was the best way to calm down her fellow circus mate
"So I don't really know how to make things better... If you want to scream your concerns away, you can use my arm again" Ragatha suggested as she lifted her arm up to the jester, who at seeing the offer just chuckled lightheartedly as she pushed Ragatha's arm away, the doll smiled as that seemed to have put the jester back in a good mood
"No, it's ok I'm just... Worried about the wound, about everything else really" Pomni said as she looked to her sides, "New world, new concerns and fears, you know?"
"It's just... I need time to adjust to this" Pomni explained as she would need a lot of readjusting to do after having gotten a bit too familiar with the circus, realizing she probably was letting her anxiety make her a bit insane if she was having worries about whether or not the air was toxic
"I hear ya, this is super different from what we all are used to. We got so used to wacky that a more grounded reality is strange to us..." Ragatha said as that was a sentiment they all shared, this world was so strange to them mostly because it was serious, more realistic and grounded, they always thought how it would be to escape the circus but never really considered how it would be once they got out, living among bright colors, loud noises and constant stimulation had made them unprepared for the whiplash of just seeing a simple forest that had no hidden gimmick to it
Groooooowwlllll...
"What was that?!" Pomni asked as she looked around scared as the sound was like the growling of some animal, her mind went places as it jumped to the possibility of it being a bear, mountain lion or even something she never saw before like a real monster or-
"It was me... I think I'm hungry" Gangle said sheepishly as she shrank upon herself in embarrassment, the others blinked at that until they placed a hand to their stomachs. They had to eat? Of course any living creature needed sustenance to live but they thought that wouldn't apply to them for obvious reasons, two of them didn't have mouths, one had no intestines, the verdict was still in question for Pomni and Ragatha, so really the only one that made sense needing to eat was Jax
"I'm feeling peckish too, that's new" Pomni commented as she had almost forgotten what feeling hungry felt by now, they needed to eat food in the circus, they only ate and drank to simulate the feeling, it was honestly a bit jarring to have to worry about something like this right now
"Ok, problem, what are we going to eat then?" Zooble asked as they didn't have a way to spawn food in, so they needed to have a method to gather it
"Well, Pomni looks like she is more marshmallow than person, so we can figure out if she tastes the same too!" Jax suggested as everyone looked at him with a dead pan look, he just chuckled at their reaction as he completely expected it "Come on, can't you guys take a little cannibal joke?"
"We could also make rabbit stew, I hear it is very nutritional..." Zooble said as they lifted their axe up into view, eyes glaring at the lilac rabbit who just motioned with a finger for them to try
"We have weapons, so we can hunt. We did that in some adventures already" Kinger said as he poked at the gems of his gauntlets, the others looked and thought about it as they did do some adventures that had them running after some person or creature with the purpose of capturing or slaying it, but that's was in a controlled environment were failing to do as such didn't mean that they would be going home without dinner
"Hmm... Okay, uh, I guess we can do that but we better make a fire as well since eating raw meat is not good for the body" Ragatha said as she didn't know if they could get food poisoning in this world and on this bodies, but it better be safe than sorry, plus it would probably help with the taste
"So one makes a campfire and the others gather stuff?" Kinger said as the gears in his head started turning, slowly but surely as a thought popped into his head, as he pointed at Zooble "Zooble, you and Pomni are the only ones that might not catch on fire so you can make the campfire. We four will try and find some berries or wood critters to cook"
"... Do you know how to make a fire?" Pomni asked as she genuinely had no idea on what to do without matches or a lighter, she knew that in cartoons they usually had the characters make it by bashing rocks together or brushing sticks against each other really fast but there's no way this would work. Zooble looked at her before sighing
"Go grab some sticks" Zooble said as they went in one direction to gather stuff, as the amalgam decided to see if they could get some firewood using their axe
"So what are we looking for? A squirrel?" Jax said as he looked around the tree bored, hoping for something interesting to happen soon or else he would do something to keep his mind occupied, maybe he would mess with Kinger this time
"Fruits if possible, I'm not sure we can effectively hunt anything like a deer or boar" Ragatha said as she didn't want to have to harm an animal if needed, but also because it was a lot less effort to just pick berries than actively having to hunt, call her lazy but she didn't want to have to chase after their dinner
"Hum... Guys? I think I found something" Gangle called the others as they approached the mass of ribbons in hiding behind a bush, getting to see the sight of a group of at least eight rabbits hanging out in the open as they did some little skips. The interesting part was that they were completely spherical, their bodies a perfect ball shape than in all honesty felt almost nostalgic to them, that was definitely something Caine would do, though he usually didn't care to fill the environment with life
"Wow... Those are some round rabbits" Kinger said as he was quite marvelled at the rabbitoids having such a perfectly spherical shape, it was quite intriguing to think on how that would work for their advantage in the wild world of the animal kingdom
"Gangle, can you throw your disk things on one of them to immobilize it? We don't want to spook all of them" Ragatha said as if they tried to approach the rabbits they might get startled and run away, thus a not so direct approach would be advantageous
"I don't know if I can kill any of them, they're so cute and my aim is so terrible I'll probably just miss them anyways..." Gangle said as she looked at the weapons in her hands, Gangle was never a person with a lot of self-confidence, at least from her memories of the circus, so her mind already thought of the many ways she could screw this up, specially after yesterday's failed attempt at helping in a fight,
"Just imagine they are Jax" Ragatha suggested, that was not the best advice she had but she thought it would be the most practical. Gangle's eyes narrowed on the rabbits, their round shape reminded them of Jax's formerly oval head, as the rabbits became more and more a lilac purple, one of them looked at her direction as it's face contorted into Jax's usual smile, Gangle's ribbon hands wrapped and clenched her weapon with force
"Really dollface? You think that would just make the crybaby into-" Jax was silenced when he saw Gangle throw the two Chakrams in quick succession, the two going to hit right in between the head of two rabbits, sinking into their flesh as blood dripped from the wounds as they fell to the sides, the other rabbits began running and hopping away in fear, as they built speed to being rolling away, they let out a collective "huh" of realization as now the round shape made some sense
"Wow it really worked, thanks Ragatha" Gangle said with a weak smile on her face, a rare sight to see her smiling without her comedy mask. Jax was concerned that her aim instantly improved when the ribbon girl replaced her target with a mental image of him
"Two cooked rabbits should be enough for Gangle and Pomni" Kinger said as he picked up the two dead mammals, they heard another growl as the chess piece saw Ragatha sink her head to her hands as her face was red in embarrassment "... On second thought, let's get the rest of the ones that escaped"
Running after the rabbits and grabbing a few more, the group of four returned to the spot their other teammates were, seeing that Pomni had made a small campfire by digging a small hole into the ground with rocks surroundings it to stop the fire from spreading, Zooble had gathered enough sticks to last them a good while and some bigger tree branches that they had cut with their axe
They had to skin the rabbits, and through the completely fair and balanced method of rock, paper, scissors, Gangle was the one who had to do it. It was difficult for the ribbon girl as she had never done this before, Zooble and Ragatha were helping her with instructions and their own input but it ended with a mangled mess and a body ruined
This triggered Jax, who although initially did not want to help, had indignation at how bad of a job Gangle was doing as he angrily and ironically asked if "did you never skinned an animal before?" Before taking the ribbon girl's hand and using her weapon to skin the rabbits in a oddly professional manner as the rest wondered how he knew the right way to skin off something
They roasted the bodies on a long stick until it looked good enough and ate it, the taste was not good, they could guess a multitude of reasons why that was the case but it was passable enough to eat, and they could only hope that they won't have stomach problems because of it, there was no drinks to help them swallow it down, there was also the weird sight of Kinger and Zooble eating, the amalgam wasn't sure how they could eat with no mouth but when they looked at kinger he was just holding the food against where his mouth should be and... It seemed to be dissolving the food from the looks of it, Zooble was weirded out but the growling in their stomach made them have to consider giving that method a try, which worked but it was annoying having to hold the food against their face for it to dissolve slowly. Now they kind of missed the food in the circus, though it's bland as cardboard taste made that a hard thing to want back
Now they were all sitting in a circle by the bonfire, idly watching the flames or playing around with the weapons in their hands, chatting should be present but there wasn't much to talk as they reflected on everything that had occurred
"My comedy mask... How am I going to fix it?" Gangle mumbled sadly to herself as she held the broken pieces of her mask, today had been a absolute wild ride, they were in a brand new world, in familiar but new bodies, with magical weapons, they had been attacked by normal humans, they had hunted rabbits in the forest and cooked their own meal, and she couldn't probably enjoy any of it without her comedy mask, it was hard to be excited when you're chronically depressed, and now Caine could just make a new one appear fixed on her room the next day
"That's the fun part, you don't! You get to be depressed twenty-four seven!" Jax said as he made sure to look extra happy and cheerful so the bundle of ribbons could feel even worse for what she was missing out. That got him a knock on the head by Zooble, as Kinger tilted his head as he looked at the ribbon girl
"Gangle, can you give me your mask?" The chess piece asked as he reached out a hand to her, Gangle looked at him and then her broken mask before giving it to him somewhat reluctantly. Kinger observed it for a moment before placing it against the gem in the palm of his left hand, the others were confused at what he was doing, thinking it was just his usual shenanigans, until the mask pieces glowed and disappeared
"What the hell?!" They all collectively shouted as they jumped from their seats in the ground as they watched Kinger intently, as his gauntlets then glowed and changed into a new form that featured the comedy mask stamped on the back of the hands of the gloves
"The weapon absorbed it and... Transformed?" Pomni pointed out as her head wrapped around the concept, not understanding a single thing that had just happened
"Ah! There we go Gangle! I got a crafting recipe for your mask, we can make more using some clay through the crafting system!" Kinger said cheerfully, innocently unaware at how everyone was staring at him confusedly
"Kinger... What in the seven blazing pits of hell did you do?" Zooble asked as they outstretched an arm towards the chess piece, everyone else shared the sentiment of confusion
"Huh? I absorbed Gangle's mask into my weapon to get its crafting recipe" Kinger simply explained like it was not a big deal he did something they never saw or knew of up to this point
"Yes but... How? How did you do and know that?" Ragatha asked for clarification, the gears in Kinger's head turning as the darkness helped him understand why his colleagues were acting strange as he gave himself a little slap on the forehead
"... Ah! Well, I noticed this little gray cube in my vision and thought it was a bug, when I focused on it a window appeared!" He began explaining how he found out about the system as everyone else started to pay total attention, eyes wide open and bodies leaning forward to better hear his explanation "Apparently, the weapons are filled with functions, from what it said in the introduction help guide, they can absorb things to get new forms, with new abilities and statistics that we can swap out with a thought since they are hotwired to our brains!"
"It's really cool, look at these cicada gauntlets I unlocked!" Kinger said as he changed his gauntlets into ones that had the aforementioned bug designed into the gauntlets. The others looked at it then themselves, soon they looked at the corner of their vision to find the gray box Kinger was referring to, concentrating on it causing a screen to pop up
It had a lot of information but the thing that most intrigued them was how video game-esque it looked, like from a MMO or RPG, it listed basic stuff like their health, defense, attack, agility and stamina but it also made them privy to the fact there was magic as they had three stats dedicated to it, labelled as magic power, magic defense and magic reserve, there was also something called skill reserve but different from magic they had no idea what that meant
"Woah... This is strange" Pomni said as she observed her status window, this was not what she expected magic to be like, but then again she was getting used to the unusual. She looked at her claws then the screen, even more the lines between this world being real or a simulation got blurry, this status screen was clearly technological but everything else felt as lively as the real world, added that to the fact they were still their circus avatars despite the few alterations and it was really boggling her mind on everything
"So this is another point for my game theory right?" Gangle said as she was feeling more and more assured on her assumption they were teleported to a different game, the others had to admit that so far everything was pointing to that, Jax hoped they would find something to pop that bubble as a victory for Gangle was simply unacceptable
"What's the timer for?" Zooble commented as the rest looked at it, there was a timer above their vision counting down, having it set on more or less three weeks as it tickled down by the seconds
"Don't know, the guide only talked about the weapons, it didn't say what the timer was counting down towards" Kinger explained and this brought a new thing for them to concern for over, a mysterious timer could not be a good thing and if anything it brought a whole slew of questions of what would happen when it reached zero, would they be sent back to the circus? Would a monster appear to kill them? Would it just warn them of the new year? They had no clue
Ragatha looked at the shield as her status window closed automatically, she walked towards a near by tree, passing her hand on its trunk before pulling out a piece of bark wood from it, as she placed it close to the shield's gem, the wood glowed and disintegrated as then a pop up appeared for her informing she got a new weapon form, she went to the forms menu, a intricate web of shield that she had yet unlocked as the system automatically moved towards the newly acquired form, she clicked on the symbol as her shield glowed and transformes into a new appearance entirely made of bark wood
"Good going rags, you turned your metal shield into a wooden one, now that's what I call down grade" Jax said jokingly but even he couldn't help and be intrigued as he idly grabbed one of the rabbit's bones and absorbed it onto his hammer, everyone else also did the same as they placed dirt, grass and sticks to their weapons to see that they could indeed transform
"Says here that if we master a weapon form by having it equipped for a certain time or by using it, we gain its bonuses permanently" Ragatha said as she wondered on why to do this, but considering it gave small stats increases to their base statistics that relate to their own physical prowess, it must be a way for them to better survive, it was possible they could die here and thus anything that improved their survival would be appreciated
"Well then we can go ahead and absorb some more stuff, we need to experiment with this, understand what this-- *yawn*" Pomni let out a long drawn out yawn before quickly covering her mouth. She looked at her hand as she started to take notice of the sensations she was feeling on her body, tired and heavy eyes, limbs going soft, brain not working on max capacity
"Gosh... Do we need to sleep as well? Ugh" Pomni said frustrated, a new and interesting development had just been shown to them and she was feeling tired? She found that unacceptable. The others also began to notice the signs of sleepiness in their bodies, though it only brought up more questions on how their bodies could even work
"Honestly, how long have we been up? Pretty sure that the moon has moved" Zooble said as they looked at the sky, when they started prepping the food the sun was going down, they ate about fifty minutes after that and then lost their notion of time, they didn't have to keep time in the circus because there was no day and night circle in there since the sun and the moon just hanged out in the sky, it could be 11: 00 PM and they would have no idea
"Someone should stay up to look out for wild animals or people" Ragatha said as she looked at the dark shadows behind the woods, certain that she heard some noise from them, since they had no shelter they had to be alert for animals coming to border them, she was ready to offer herself to take the first round of night watch but Kinger raised his hand up and wave it frantically
"I can do that, I feel much more motivated to stay awake during the night" Kinger said as he could always sleep during the day if he wanted to, night made him feel better, more calm and attentive to the right details. Plus he could keep himself awake by watching the campfire intently or just try to recite bug facts from his mind. The others looked at each other a bit unsure but they gave him a thumbs up, if anything, Kinger's paranoid behavior could prove good to have as a guard on look out
"Alrighty then, let's put our hopes of not getting mauled by a bear to looney head" Jax said as he got up and walked towards Ragatha, the two looked at each other as the doll was confused. Before she could have reacted the rabbit went ahead and used his leg to push her back to the ground as he quickly went and positioned himself as to drop his head and most of his upper torso onto Ragatha waist as it made a soft thud
"Jax?! What do you think you're doing?!" Ragatha shouted as she picked her upper torso up to look at the rabbit both angry and embarrassed, Jax simply opened a single eye lid to look at her with a neutral expression
"Hey, gimme a break on this, you're the closest thing to a pillow here" Jax replied as he closed his eyes and began to relax himself as he tried to get comfortable. Ragatha looked embarrassed as she surveyed her body, she was much bigger than she was in the circus, and a lot more rounded out too, she could also feel the stuffing inside herself different from the circus as she poked her arm with a finger, seeing how deep it sank in, she didn't even have bones it seemed and any hard muscle tissue was instead replaced by fluffy cotton
"... Sigh, you know what? Alright. Today was strange and stressful enough that I don't have the energy to deal with this" Ragatha said as she looked back at everything that happened today, being used as pillow should be the least of her worries in the moment even if she felt extremely embarrassed. She looked at the Zooble and the rest
"... If you guys want, you can use me as well" Ragatha commented as she would rather be used by everybody than just Jax as it felt very weird in her mind to be his personal pillow, both options were not ideal and frankly made her embarrassed, but she was nothing if not a peoples pleaser, and thought that was what would be desired of her
"Nah, we're good, we respect others personal space, unlike someone" Zooble said as they sent a look at Jax who acknowledged it with a cheeky grin, the amalgam laid down close to a tree and rested there. Gangle followed suit as they just kind of laid down flatly on the grass a bit away from the campfire in fear of a stray blaze putting them a flame
Pomni looked at Ragatha, as in one hand she could really use a head rest after such night, but on the other she didn't want to abuse the doll's good will, so she compromised by sitting close to Ragatha and Jax, but laying on plain ground as the doll looked at her and their eyes met, they share a anxious smile as the two were worried over their current predicament but at least they weren't alone, soon they all fell asleep while staring at the sky
With the exception of Kinger, who looked at them and then back at the campfire, hearing the sounds of nature as the leaves rattled by the cold wind of night, not an animal making a sound aside from a bird or two. His eyes looked up at the sky, dark blue surrounded by glowing stars, probably the first beautiful sight they would see in this new world
In a castle within a large city surrounded by a wall, a man was donned in robes of cream and navy blue with detailing and trim of gold. Over that was an elegant cloak of a rich purple, his grey hair reached down to his shoulders with a trimmed grey beard, each of his fingers except for the pointer fingers was a gold ring with only the right index finger sporting a gem, purple in color. Upon his head was a gold crown with a lone purple gem in the center of it. This was the king of the country of Melromarc, Aultclay Melromarc the XXXI
He tapped his fingers at the wooden armrests of his throne as he waited for the heroes to arrive, he knew well the risk that he committed by summoning the four heroes to his country, that would make the rest of the world want his head on a platter after what he did, and if not his then certainly of his wife and his youngest daughter could be killed for it!... Mirellia could protect herself and Melty, if her impeccable mind and negotiation abilities couldn't then her ice magic could certainly do it, and if they were to die... Aultclay would make sure to unleash hell upon those who didn't even if it was for a mistake he committed
"Now entering the cardinal heroes!" a voice from the other side called out as the wooden door to the throne room opened as four people walked inside each carrying a different weapon, the bearers of the sword, spear and bow were as to be expected, fine young men of healthy physique and beautiful looks, they certainly would be the heroes his country would sing for in generations
But one thing grabbed his attention more than anything else, there were only three heroes, and those heroes had real weapons, and not a defensive tool disguised as one. There was no shield hero present there, which meant that his plan had worked, so he couldn't only help himself from smiling
"So... these are the summoned legendary heroes?" Aultclay asked, catching the attention of the three young heroes as they looked in the direction of the throne "Very well... I'm king Aultcray Melromarc XXXI"
"Now, could the heroes please name yourselves." He spoke while looking at them from his throne, his tone was very dominant and commanding as a king of a nation would have.
"I am Amaki Ren, age 16, a high schooler" the sword hero said as he stepped up while he held his sword with his left hand.
"I'm Kitamura Motoyasu, 21 years old, college student" The spear hero went next. Taking a step forward and placing his spear on his shoulders
"Guess I'm next, huh? Kawasume Itsuki, 17, high schooler as well" The bow hero went next as he raised his bow to inspect the object
"Uhm... Anyways,My country of Melromarc is in grave danger of a threat known as the waves." the king began explaining what the waves were.They could happen anywhere at any time, lasting for multiple hours or until the boss is killed. During that time monsters would continue to pour out of the wave and even after it stopped, any monster already here would remain until slain
"The waves are said to become stronger over time. They last longer, the wave bosses and all under them will be stronger. There are even written accounts of waves with more than one wave boss...It is best to summon you now, when the waves are weak to give you time to strengthen yourselves to stay ahead of the wave's growing threat" the king finished his explanation with a heavy sigh
"Strengthen ourselves? Are we not legendary heroes? are these not legendary weapons?" Ren spoke as he lifted the sword he held to his chest. It seemed the heroes were unaware of the power they held, that's to be expected from such young individuals in the start of their journey
"You see heroes, each weapon has its own strengthening method. It gains strength alongside you all as they are one with your bodies and souls, they are as strong as you will let it be, it is your responsibility as the bearers of the sacred weapons to help them grow into their true potencial as to one day they may be able to rip the sea in half and turn mountains into dust," the king clarified as that made the heroes look at their weapons more inquisitively at the thought of doing such feats.
"As for you yourselves, could you activate your status magic?" The king asked, pulling the heroes away from analysing their weapons to just look at him in confusion once again with the exception of the sword hero
"What? Status magic?" Motoyasu asked as he scratched the side of his head, Itsuki wondered the same thing. But Ren seemed annoyed as he apparently had already activated his status
"You guys are serious? It should have been the first you would notice, there's an icon in the corner of your vision, focus on it and a menu should appear" Ren said as he looked at his fellow heroes dumbfounded by their ignorance in a manner that should have been obvious. The heroes followed his instructions, finding the icon and focusing on it, causing a digital screen to appear in their vision revealing their stats like health bar, level and other game aspects
"Yeah I think I got this, but surely you don't expect us to do this free right?" Itsuki said as he shot a look of defiance towards the king, pulling the other heroes attention back from their status screen to the current moment
"Of course, you will be rewarded handsomely and not just at the end, but after every wave we will reward you heroes. Every step of the way." Aultclay said as he nodded to the hero's demands, the young men felt quite proud of themselves. Even supposed holy heroes could have flaws, demanding rewards in exchange for saving the world, Aultclay did not see a problem with that as greed was something useful to manipulate, if a little monetary incentive was all he needed to get the heroes to his side then so be it
"Well There's three of us, so we just need to form a group, right?" Motoyasu suggested what seemed like the logical conclusion, since the three of them were summoned here together it only made sense that they would be a team, before the other two could say anything, they were cut off
"Excuse me, but that won't do at all. Due to the unique qualities of the holy weapons, none of you can gain experience while near one another." Aultclay interjected, he didn't know if the heroes truly couldn't work together or not, but it was better to separate them as so they could spread themselves through a larger area and thus defend his country from more angles, it also would be good to make sure they are surrounded by loyal nationalist of Melromarc to help them embrace the country's ideology
"You must form parties of adventurers separately. Gather strength then fight the waves together" The king responded to the group, grabbing back their attention as they looked at him
"Your status magic should be a great aid. Please refer to it tonight." The king motioned to several servants dressed in typical maid outfits, the heroes seemed very pleased at the view, specially the spear
"For now, please rest and adjust to these trying circumstances. Tomorrow I will introduce you to adventures who have agreed to aid you in your difficult quest. Between your status magic and seasoned adventures by your side, most questions you have will be answered soon enough" The king explained to them as he was to make sure their parties were filled with people who share the ideologies of Melromarc to hopefully influence the heroes. The servants motioned to the heroes to follow. After they left, the king motioned for the guide of the heroes to come closer
"So I see that the shield wasn't present... Does that mean that it worked?" The king asked the man, Aultclay was very reluctant to summon the shield hero to his country, but the only way to summon the three cardinal heroes was if all four were summoned. Aultclay could oblige to that, he hated the shield and everything he represented more than anything in the world, so he looked for a way to prevent it
And he found his solution in the form of an ancient scroll guarded in the vaults of the castle, the language it was written in was very old and nobody had spoken it in centuries, but from what he understood by the illustrations and his own rough translation, it was a solution to his shield troubles. It was a way to alter the summon to do... Something to one hero while leaving the others as be, he immediately gathered brilliant scholars and historians from which he could trust to decrypt it and after some weeks, they got it mostly figured out, he ordered the summoners to use the instructions of the scroll for the ritual and it seemed it was a success
"Yes your majesty, though it was hard to decipher that ancient scroll, we were able to successfully alter the ritual as for the shield hero to not be summoned... Or from what I saw from the result, leave him nothing more than burn ashes" the guide and summoner said, in truth they still didn't know if their translation was completely correct as it hard to find anyone who understood a thousand years old language that wasn't spoken in six centuries, their best translation ended on the spectrum of "separately summon a cardinal hero from the rest" but that couldn't be right for them as it used ancient Siltveltian so they had to try again, but once they added some ancient Melromarcian they seemed to have gotten the translation they were looking for as it roughly meant "summon heroes while single one for death"
So they followed the translated manuscript and performed the summoning ritual, it was as expected as it was a grandiose spectacle as the legendary weapons manifested slowly one by one as their wielders bodies were molded from gracious golden light in an elegant and gentle motion. Until it got to the shield, since they made the altercations, instead of gracefully forming, it weaved and moved like something from inside was fighting to take shape that wasn't a misshapen sphere or splot of metal, then there was the light as while the others had a graceful glow, the shield erupted into a spiral of colors that almost blinded them if they hadn't covered their eyes
With another difference being that they heard screaming, the other heroes hadn't made a sound when being transported from the heavens to earth. The shield let out a bellowing scream of agony, the man could swear it was the roar of a demon as it sounded like six different voices all conjoined in a melody of audio torment
When it ended, the man thought he might have a heart attack, he saw the results, three beautiful young men wielding the weapons of saints, and in the shield's place was a small mount of ashes, with some still hot and burning, with strange pieces of some type of fur coat, ribbons, a pair of oddly shaped solid items made of a material he never saw and three types of hair: purple, black and red. He was reluctant to tell the king that additionally, the beam of light that was made out of the shield hero made holes through everything above it until reaching the roof of the castle, he interpreted that as God having sent a beam to smite the shield devil, perhaps the ritual had separated him from the shield for the right moment for god's judgement to be cast, he was still going to keep that from the king, the monarch didn't need to know about the property damage
"I see, so the devil was scorched to nothingness. That's the news I wanted to hear" the king said overjoyed but hid his excitement well as he walked towards the large windows that gave him a view of his kingdom
He couldn't help but feel overtly proud of himself, as thanks to him the kingdom was truly protected from all threats, he had the three heroes to fight the waves and the shield hero he despised so much was dead. A new cardinal hero couldn't be summoned unless all four are killed, but now he didn't have to worry about the political and logistical trouble of killing or defaming a hero as he could just blame it on a faulty ritual.
Sure the other nations would question that excuse and would be more than mad he had hogged salvation solely to his country, but they couldn't fight back as now five of the star heroes that protected them were dead all thanks to a bastard son from the pig king, so they would have to shift their military focus on combating the waves instead of raging war against Melromarc, and when the time was right they could attack with their military while having the heroes either blatantly unaware or fighting with them if it all went well
The king chuckled, unaware of the mistake he made
Non Canon Short - Communal pillow
"Jax?! What do you think you're doing?!" Ragatha shouted as she picked her upper torso up to look at the rabbit both angry and embarrassed, Jax simply opened a single eye lid to look at her with a neutral expression
"Hey, gimme a break on this, you're the closest thing to a pillow here" Jax replied as he closed his eyes and began to relax himself as he tried to get comfortable. Ragatha looked embarrassed as she surveyed her body, she was much bigger than she was in the circus, and a lot more rounded out too, she could also feel the stuffing inside herself different from the circus as she poked her arm with a finger, seeing how deep it sank in, she didn't even have bones it seemed and any hard muscle tissue was instead replaced by fluffy cotton
"... Sigh, alright. But it would be weird if you're the only one sleeping on me." Ragatha commented as she would rather be used by everybody than just Jax as it felt very weird in her mind to be his personal pillow, both options were not ideal and frankly made her embarrassed, but she was nothing if not a peoples pleaser, and thought that was what would be desired of her "You guys can use me as a communal pillow as well"
The others stood there in silent contemplation until Gangle moved forward, laying down close to Ragatha as she rested her head on the doll's left leg, letting out a comfortable sigh. Pomni and Zooble looked at each other before the amalgam shrugged, and joined in on the sleep pile
Pomni swallowed down nervously, she approached slowly and sat down close to Ragatha, the jester looked at her in the face as the doll gave her a reassuring nod, Pomni did the slow process of lowering her head against Ragatha's chest, feeling it sink into the softness of her bosom, it felt nice, really frickin nice. Ragatha placed a hand behind her own head before wrapping her other arm around Pomni gently, the jester almost overheating as she wasn't one for too much touching, she was probably going to take a few moments to fully fall asleep now that her heart rate skyrocketed
[Author's notes]
Please leave a review as they really help and I love seeing your thoughts on the fanfic
A botched ritual is the explanation for why the cast has been summoned to a random part of the country, as well as the reason they are now real fleshy versions of their digital avatars instead of their human selfs
What do you guys think of the designs? I based most out of fanart I saw of the cast
I'm a bit of a ragapom shipper, buttonblosom is my weakness in this fandom.
Also here's the statistics for the characters because I got a bit too enthusiastic about giving them different stat placement:
[Name: Pomni]
[Level: 1]
[Race: monster - rubber homunculus]
[Title: the jester, the newbie, seeker of escape, agitated hamster]
[Class: Vassal Claw wielder]
[Equipment: otherworldly jester outfit, otherworldly jester cap, otherworldly shoes, otherworldly gloves]
[Stats:
Health: 120
Magical reserve: 10
Skill reserve: 10
Stamina: 25
Attack: 15
Defense: 10
Magical defense: 10
Agility: 30
[Base stats Total: 230]
[Name: Ragatha]
[Level: 1]
[Race: monster - living ragdoll]
[Title: the doll, lady's killer, ray of sunshine, spineless doormat]
[Class: Legendary shield wielder]
[Equipment: otherworldly dress, otherworldly shoes, otherworldly cloth bow]
[Stats:
Health: 120
Magical reserve: 10
Skill reserve: 10
Stamina: 15
Attack: 1
Defense: 30
Magical defense: 40
Agility: 5
[Base stats Total: 231]
[Name: Jax]
[Level: 1]
[Race: monster - Jack-hare Rabbitoid]
[Title: the rabbit, the menace, jackass, fall of the candy kingdom, ruiner of others fun]
[Class: Vassal Hammer wielder]
[Equipment: otherworldly overalls, otherworldly gloves]
[Stats:
Health: 115
Magical reserve: 10
Skill reserve: 10
Stamina: 20
Attack: 30
Defense: 20
Magical defense: 10
Agility: 15
[Base stats Total: 230]
[Name: Gangle]
[Level: 1]
[Race: monster - Ribbon creature]
[Title: the mask, crybaby, masker of true feeling, a woman of culture and taste, amateur artist, shipper]
[Class: Vassal Projectile Wielder]
[Equipment: Comedy mask(broken)]
[Stats:
Health: 100
Magical reserve: 20
Skill reserve: 20
Stamina: 20
Attack: 20
Defense: 10
Magical defense: 10
Agility: 30
[Base stats Total: 230]
[Name: Zooble]
[Level: 1]
[Race: monster - amalgam]
[Title: the mix-match, adventure skipper, ever-changing, Jax's number one hater]
[Class: Vassal Axe wielder]
[Equipment: otherworldly miscellaneous accessories]
[Stats:
Health: 120
Magical reserve: 10
Skill reserve: 10
Stamina: 25
Attack: 30
Defense: 20
Magical defense: 10
Agility: 5
[Base stats Total: 230]
[Name: Kinger]
[Level: 1]
[Race: monster - chess piece type King]
[Title: the king, oldest in the circus, married man, bug enthusiast, the dad that stepped up, crazy at a manageable level]
[Class: Vassal Gauntlets wielder]
[Equipment: otherworldly robes, otherworldly pants, otherworldly shoes]
[Stats:
Health: 110
Magical reserve: 10
Skill reserve: 10
Stamina: 30
Attack: 20
Defense: 20
Magical defense: 15
Agility: 15
[Base stats Total: 230]