Chapter 1: The Last Sin
boom
'Was that an explosion'
Boom
'what on earth is that noise'
BOOM
Kal's eyes snapped open in irritation as he wondered who would have the audacity to wake him from what had been an extremely pleasant dream. Yet instead of finding himself in his room he found he was surrounded by darkness. Wondering what time it was Kal attempted to sit up and look for his phone.
pop
'Fuck' thought Kal
Upon attempting to sit up he had almost immediately hit his head against something. He went to raise his arm only to find he could hardly move it. Fear started to creep its way into his mind as he wondered where he was, but as suddenly as the fear started, it was gone. In its place was a hollow and empty feeling.
With this new feeling lead to a clarity that Kal had never had before. He started to try to recall the last thing that had happened to him. The moment he did he felt a searing pain in his head and found himself unable to inhale.
'Inhale'
As the pain started to subside Kal noticed that it wasn't that he couldn't breathe, but that he hadn't been. Since gaining consciousness he hadn't felt the need for oxygen once.
'What the hell is happening'
Although he couldn't move in any direction he let his eyes roam along the seemingly endless darkness he had awoken to. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light he could see trails of smoke that were such a vibrant shade of black that he could actually follow their trails through the expanse of shadow he found himself embraced in.
BOOM
That noise seemed to be getting much closer, or was it just getting louder, it was almost impossible to tell. The silence that followed next seemed even louder than the bangs that kept interrupting his train of thought.
Searching through his memories to try to discover what had happened to him Kal was suddenly assaulted by pain again, but this time he didn't let it impact his focus.
The pain continued for a few seconds but to Kal it had felt like hours. His eyes watered and the only thing he could hear through the silence now was the slow pumping of his own heart. With the passing of the pain came a flood of memories. The tidal wave of information that he was suddenly faced with, was all consuming. Images flashed through his head. It seemed almost like a rolodex of pain, and that's when Kal remembered; the smell of charred flesh that had been coming from his skin, the iron taste of his blood as his lungs filled with the crimson liquid.
He had died
He was dead
Kals mind was ready to surge with emotions; anger, grief, despair, and even relief all seemed appropriate. Instead he found himself almost disinterested while sorting through his memories, as if watching the worlds shittiest highlight real. Having grown up in foster care until he was 5, being adopted by what had seemed like a nice man and introduced to a group of children his age. Being told they would be his new family, the torture they went through as kids that their "Father" had justified as training for the cruel reality of the world. He remembered the day they had been saved from that awful life at sixteen. How mad he had been at his helplessness. How angry he had felt at his naivete. Memories of the men who saved them telling them they were special and how they could be heroes. Lastly memories of death, of pain he inflicted and eventually fell victim too. Dead by the age of 22 in a country he couldn't have found on a map by people who didn't even know his name.
'A pathetic ending to a pathetic life' thought Kal
As he started to sink into his thoughts he found himself experiencing a new set of memories. Memories that definitely weren't his own flashed through his mind. He saw a stunning woman lift him above her head as she looked at him with what he could only guess was love. It seemed similar to how Kal recalled looking at his siblings when they were saved, maybe relief instead of love then. Either way she had kind eyes and the feeling of her hands holding him was warm and tender. The next memory was of himself standing in front of a large man who was smiling brightly while holding a wooden sword and giving him instruction on how to use it. The following image was just as horrific as remembering his own death; seeing the kind woman put her body in front of his as some kind of beast Kal had never seen before streaked by taking the woman's head with it. He saw a castle burning as he was carried away on strong shoulders, and then felt himself falling as he saw a look of fear and panic on the face of the man who had been smiling in an earlier memory as he flung his arm towards me.
BOOM
The tidal wave of images and information came to a stop and Kal's eyes flickered open as he once again tried to peer through the darkness to find the source of that noise. Then to his left he saw cracks of light start to form and suddenly the darkness looked like fragile glass as cracks ruptured through it right before it shattered.
The light was blinding and Kal instinctively blinked his eyes in an attempt to adjust, but before he could even begin to gain his bearings a rough hand wrapped tightly around his arm. Then he found himself flung forward and onto cold hard stone.
"Stand" barked a raspy voice that reminded Kal of his "Father" way to much for his liking. Yet he clearly remembered himself dying, and the other set of memories in his head were of an obviously younger person. Perhaps he had reincarnated and only recently regained the memories of his past life. So given the little information he currently had Kal decided his best bet was to remain silent and follow orders for the time being. He gazed at the odd black stone floor under his feet before moving his eyes up and started to search for the person who had ordered him to stand. The first thing he noticed was the large egg shaped crystal that was split in half. 'Was I in there' thought Kal before his eyes lowered from the egg and onto the person who stood in front of it. The person he assumed had spoken before.
Shock filled him as his gaze landed on a tiny old man who wasn't any bigger than five feet tall. His body was skinny as if he had never been fed. His face seemed almost featureless because of the thick beard that connected to a curly mop of hair on his head. Yet the copious amounts of hair did little to hide the man's ruby skin. The tiny red man was draped in a black robe with purple accents and was leaning on what appeared to be a slab of metal that was two times bigger than him. He was at first baffled at the idea that this frail looking man had tossed him around, but realized it may be the case upon seeing the small man fling his foot towards the slab of metal. The impact from his small foot made the slab flip into the sky in an arc.
Kal saw the frail old man's hand zip towards what seemed to be a handle sticking out from the end of the slab of metal. It was only once he found the end that had been previously stuck in the ground inches from his face that he realized it was actually a sword, or at least some nightmarish version of one.
"You seem capable of following basic instructions" the tiny man stated as he placed the sword over his shoulder like it weighed nothing "It would appear the experiment didn't completely destroy your mind"
'Experiment?' Thought Kal but he kept his mouth shut as words from his time with his "Father" echoed in his head 'Silence is better then stupidity, keep your mouth shut and your ears open'
"You don't seem capable of speech though, no matter, not much of a loss all things considered" continued the man in a dismissive tone before he raised his voice and said seemingly to no one at all "He's in the circle you can start the infusion now"
Kal's eyes snapped down and found that he was inside a set of golden designs on the floor, and they did indeed form a circle. Before he could contemplate what the old man meant by infusion he heard what sounded like a female stutter out a "Yes Sir" and suddenly the gold designs started to glow an angry red.
It looked like metal being heated and Kal decided that he would stay away from the strange symbols on the floor. Almost as if they had heard him, the now glowing red designs seemed to quiver before they rapidly moved. Kal didn't even have time to feel alarmed before the designs that formed the part of the circle behind him had found their way onto his skin.
His vision went black the moment the seemingly sentient symbols touched skin but the designs were unaffected by his pain as they continued to snake their way across his skin. Kal spasmed and shook as he dropped to his knees in agony, he wanted to scream but no sound came out, he could smell his flesh burning as the red hot snakes slithered across his skin. Just as Kal thought the pain he felt was more intense then humanly possible his entire body suddenly went cold.
'Death' was what Kal considered 'this sudden weightless feeling and mind numbing cold have to be death'
But Kal was wrong, because in the next moment all of the pain he felt on his skin came back and along with it came a feeling of acid soaking every muscle in his body. He shook and fell face first to the ground from his knees, yet his body kept convulsing. His muscles looked like they were trying to tear their way out of his skin as they bugled and contracted at insane speeds.
After what felt like a lifetime of pain slowly started to fade. Then a new sense of strength and power he had never known filled him, making that unbearable pain a distant memory. Kal found himself glancing at his body for the first time since he had woken up. Pale grey skin was what he first noticed about himself, a sharp contrast to the rapidly cooling golden tattoos he had just been unwillingly given, he struggled to his feet in an attempt to fully take in his new appearance and noticed a bit sadly that he seemed shorter then in his original body. Still this body seemed to be about six foot and possessed a nice muscular build 'seems like a body built for speed not strength' Kal thought as he continued to take in his appearance. He finally noticed he was completely naked as he let his eyes trace the golden tattoos that now existed along the entirety of this body only to hear the same small voice that had come before his pain speak up again.
"Master are you sure that he'll be able to survive, that was all of the combat data we had stored for all 16 subjects, and those seals you put on him aren't meant for mortals. Won't his body collapse because of the strain the procedure put on it?"
"Nonsense" snapped the old man "stop being a fool and turn around, not only is it alive, its already getting back up all by itself" the old man's voice seemed to gain an excited edge as he spoke the last part.
The girl who was only a few inches taller then the man gasped in surprise as she turned around; Kal found himself perplexed by the sight of her, she seemed insanely normal when compared to his own grey skin and the old Dwarves crimson complexion. The girl had messy brown hair, and big brown eyes that were covered by thick circular glasses, she wore a black cloak that was several sizes too big for her. She may have been pretty if her eyes hadn't held clear signs of insanity.
"H-h-how" whispered the girl to herself upon seeing Kal standing up, but Kal's ears had no trouble picking up on her words.
'She's at least fifty yards away how on earth am I able to hear her' wondered Kal as he raised his arm towards his ear, instead of a normal human ear he found his felt pointed. Multiple possibilities filled Kal's mind but so did just as many questions.
'Until I know more I'll just have to get all the info I can from them talking about me like I can't hear them. Starting with who the hells body this is!'
"Number 8 stop standing around and get over here" said the little man, he opened his mouth to continue when he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a massive explosion that seemed to be coming from above their heads
Kal found his gaze drawn to the ceiling as he took a moment to fully take in the room. The walls and even the ceiling all seemed to be made of the same black stone as the floor, there were no longer any gold markings on the floor. The walls flickered with light green symbols that seemed to move continuously crashing into each other and forming new symbols before breaking and restarting the process over again. The room was almost as long as a football field and at least twice as wide. As Kal turned around he noticed that the glass egg he had been thrown from previously was not the only one of its kind, in fact there were at least a dozen others lined up along the massive room.
The old man noticed Kal's eyes darting over every inch of the room and allowed him to look around for a minute before inevitably losing his patience and snapping "Number Eight we don't have time to stand around, come quickly" the old man turned after saying those words and looked seriously at the girl next to him "Go grab all the data we managed to collect from the failed experiments, we need to be out of here before those damned royals make it here."
Upon hearing the old man call out Number Eight for a second time Kal was able to deduce that he was referring to him 'how helpful, he couldn't even use this bodies name'. Yet he quickly made his way towards the man when he heard another explosion echo above the room.
"Annoying bastards" griped the old man as he walked swiftly out of the large room and down a long hallway with Kal following not far behind "thirty years I've been gone and they still managed to track me down, I'm so close to creating a perfect body, why do these fools insist on getting in my way" the man continued to rant as they walked, his intent to kill was getting more and more intense and Kal found his muscles tensing in case the old guy made a move against him. Then suddenly the murderous aura disappeared as he stopped and spun on his heels, looking up to face Kal he said with a serious expression "Of the sixteen sins I created, only you and number Nine were successful, you must survive regardless of what happens, I will find you" upon stating those words the old man's face seemed slightly surprised before he stated "Nine where are his clothes, why is he still naked!" Small footsteps echoed through the hall as the girl ran up to them with her arms full of clothes "Right here master" replied the now named Nine happily as she reduced her pace to a walk upon reaching us. Nine tossed the clothes towards me without a second glance before snapping her gaze back to the old man and gingerly holding out her palm with a dark jade ring in it.
The man seemed pleased upon seeing the ring and quickly snatched it from her hand before shifting his gaze back to Kal "Eight you are to follow nine and keep this ring safe"
Kal had just finished putting on black cargo pants and a red shirt before slipping on a plain black robe that was identical to Nine's when the dark green ring entered his vision. It seemed to be slowly floating in front of him, but Kal wasted no time grabbing it and slipping it on his index finger before he looked at the old man and nodded resolutely.
A pleased look appeared on the old mans face upon seeing Kal's apparent obedience and he turned back to the girl in front of him before speaking again "Make sure number eight makes it out in one piece, the information I've stored within his blood is vital to finishing my research, and his seals must not be damaged. My research is more important than either of your lives, even if you die do not let his body fall into anyone else's hands" upon finishing that sentence the old man placed his hand an the wall next to him and a door appeared out of thin air. The old dwarf didn't spare them another glance as he started to walk in the opposite direction of the door, back towards the already abandoned room. His massive sword was all Kal could see as the small man slowly headed towards the sounds of explosions. Kal didn't care, now that the old man was gone and he was alone with the girl he might be able to get some questions answered. But before Kal could even start to decide on a way to approach the girl she spoke. "Master is an awful man but he is powerful, trying to escape him would only get you killed" upon sayin that she looked at him almost as if she was proud of herself for having read his mind.
Kal couldn't help but snort before breathing in to speak, only to feel a intense temperature change to the left of himself. Time seemed to slow to a crawl and Kal could see every single thing happening around him in terrifying detail. There was no time to wonder how his body was doing this because his senses were screaming at him that he was in danger. Grabbing Nine by her hand and dashing back a few feet barely saved the two of them from the blazing inferno that had appeared at their previous position.
"You actually managed to dodge that" said a deep voice as a tall man with long blonde hair entered through the door they had been standing in front of "I guess the captain wasn't lying about this fugitive being strong"
"He was also right about him having an escape hatch that leads underground" a light and feminine voice replied as a short stocky woman with blue hair followed the man through the door. "But didn't the captain say he was a dwarf? This is a human girl and some kind of elf" continued the woman as she stopped next to the man.
"Either way they're using the escape hatch that leads back to that demonic sect, killing them is part of the mission. After we finish up here we can head further in, although I'm sure the captain has found the dwarf by now" replied the man as he drew a long silver sword from his waist.
"Very well, it is a crime in itself to survive my spontaneous flame magic" said the woman as she pointed a small wooden stick with a sanguine colored crystal at the base towards Kal and Nine.
Kal had been listening to their short exchange in wonder, he still had no idea what exactly was going on but he was sure of a few things at least. First he was definitely on another planet, or at least an alternate version of earth. Secondly the old man was a dwarf, like an actual dwarf, and if what the woman had said was right the body he was in belonged to an elf. And lastly he was sure that the flames that the woman had called magic had been meant to kill them. He wondered what they meant by demonic sect. and made a mental note to find out for himself later, but at the moment Kal finally had a chance to do something that wasn't confusing in the least. Fight!
"Be honored" stated the blonde man with a proud smirk on his face "you'll die at the hands of a silver ranked Magic Knight"
Kal didn't care what the man was saying anymore, he had already made his move. He took a deep breath as his leg muscles tensed and his seals glowed. He felt the world slow down to a crawl around him. Then he leapt directly at the woman holding the wooden stick. Yet it seemed Kal had vastly underestimated his own speed because in just a single step he found himself directly in between the two humans. Time was still flowing slowly in Kal's eyes and his mind adjusted to his new speed in an instant. He flung his left hand towards the woman and watched in shock as it met zero resistance upon coming into contact with her face, it appeared to keep moving as if there was nothing there. This made Kal jump back to his previous position in an attempt to try and figure out how the woman had managed to avoid him when he had been moving so fast. It was only when he had landed in his previous position and stopped breathing once again that his seals stopped glowing and time returned to its normal pace.
And in that exact instance Kal and the two people around him all noticed that where the blue haired woman had been previously now only contained a headless body
(Several Seconds Earlier)
/Nine's POV/
Nine felt rather smug as she informed her new companion that he wouldn't be able to escape his new master. It wasn't that she hadn't thought of escaping herself, but she had seen the old dwarves strength first hand. She knew without a doubt even with the upgrades she had received during his experiments she wouldn't be able to escape him. She had been prepared to continue informing Eight of his new plight when she suddenly found herself standing almost ten feet away from her previous position with him holding her by the arm.
Before she could say a word she heard a pompous voice start to speak as two figures made their way through the door her master had left for them to escape through. Terror filled her as she found herself unable to take her eyes from their uniforms while they spoke.
'Members of the Jade Empire, but how did they find master's secret exit' she raged in her mind 'It's okay I'm a silver ranked mage I can definitely get us out of this"
Determination was all she could feel at the moment, and she knew they had to run. These were trained warriors and her and Eight were only experiments. They didn't stand a change against them, but she could at least distract them so they could escape.
"...Silver Ranked Magic Knight..."
Through her determined planning she heard those words and her blood ran cold as fear drained that resolve from her body. A silver ranked magic knight was an impossible existence compared to them. Even if they were ranked the same it was well known that until a mage reached gold rank even a novice silver ranked knight could out pace them, escape had suddenly become impossible. She also knew from the books her master had given her that a silver ranked magic knight was always found with a gold ranked mage in the Jade Empire. 'That means that woman is a gold ranked mage' she thought in awe as her eyes landed on the plump blue haired woman.
Yet instead of starring at the specter of death that all gold ranked beings were said to embody; she found herself looking at a body with smoke rising where the head should be. The image made Nine feel nauseous almost instantly, but before she could wonder what had happened she heard a loud boom next to the body. Her eyes snapped towards the silver ranked knight only to find him looking down at his chest in horror.
Nine immediately understood why upon seeing Eight's figure materialize behind the man, his left hand sticking through the knights armor and grasped in Eight's hand was the mans still beating heart. Nine watched as the knight puked up blood before attempting to turn his head and look at his attacker. Eight moved again suddenly, and Nine could barely follow his other arm coming up and striking the mans head, instantly the knights body resembled the headless mage's and Nine understood what had happened. Her new companion had moved her out of the way of the flames and taken care of the attackers before she could even decide on what spell to cast.
Starring at Eight as if he was a deity she couldn't help but gulp as she saw the blood drip down his arm after he had removed it from the now dead mans chest. Nine opened her mouth to speak but her eyes landed on Eights piercing silver eyes and found the words dying in her throat.
"I don't plan on leaving until I understand more about where I am and how I got here, so there's no need for you to lecture me at the moment" she heard a soft voice reverberate through her eardrums and with a start she realized it had been Eight. She hadn't heard him speak yet, and unlike the rest of the subjects of the experiments she had never actually seen him wake up before today. 'Does he have any idea who I am' She thought to herself.
"Y-yes of course" Nine managed to stutter out upon seeing Eight stare at her as if waiting for a response. "But how did you do that?" she couldn't stop herself from asking even as her mind filled with different scenarios of what he might do to her before making his escape.
"I started to breathe" he responded simply
Nine found herself confused at his response but before she could contemplate it further the enigma in front of her spoke again "The little one said we were supposed to head out that door, are you sure we should still be standing around here?"
Those words brought her back to reality and begrudgingly she pushed the questions aside. Then Nine started to walk out of the escape tunnel.
The light blinded Kal as he ascended the steps leading out of the underground tunnel. He blinked a few times to allow his eyes to readjust to the light, both the hallway and huge room he had been in had only had the dull glow of the green symbols illuminating them. Wind blew against the heavy robes he was wearing but hardly noticed it; his sole focus at the moment was the large twisting spires of ivory that stretched towards the sky, some even pierced the clouds. Heading higher and higher they reached towards a brilliant purple sky.
'The sky is Purple, so another planet then?' thought Kal indifferently before he refocused his attention to the rows of ivory that seemed to surround him 'Bones maybe, but what kind of thing leaves this many bones of this size'
"Why are you staring at the trees like that?" asked Nine from beside him. He didn't bother giving her a response, she talked a lot but bits and pieces of what she said helped fill some of the gaps in his current understanding of the situation. 'Trees?' he thought looking at the ivory spires. He could clearly remember having seen trees in his memories and knew that they didn't look very different from the ones he had known in his first life.
"I guess with how long you've been stuck as a lab rat it's not impossible that you never got to leave before" mused the girl out loud when faced with his silence. "after all you were the first one he caught" she said before glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
Kal rolled his eyes at her obvious attempt to rile him up, but unknown to her he had just woken up in this body. Although he did have access to some scattered memories of this body they had no real impact on his mentality. He had noticed his mind had only taken a few minutes to sort through both his actual memories and the ones of this body and compiled them into a database of sorts, allowing him to use the information he found in his mind without letting the memories make him emotional.
It was the fact that he felt like a stranger watching a movie in first person as he had walked up the steps of the exit reviewing those memories that had allowed him to decide that he had in fact inhabited a new body and not been reborn.
'A body that's apparently not human, and is also capable of reacting at insane speeds with even more insane strength' Ideas popped into his mind of himself fighting with those two people, if that could be called a fight at all. They had both been dead before they had a chance to fight back, not that Kal had felt bad in any way. He had been quite concerned by the term Magic Knight and even more startled by that woman's so called magic. Although both of them had been eliminated by his surprise attack it definitely didn't mean they wouldn't have been capable of killing him.
"We are once again standing around talking" he replied in a bored tone "do you intend to wait for more of those oddly dressed people to show up?"
"Oh, well let's get going!" Nine chirped seeming satisfied that he had responded at all. She glanced around as she pulled out a black crystal. The stone had eight sides and was covered in strange symbols that glowed a pale purple color. The symbols started to converge into one side of the crystal and formed into an arrow that covered two of the sides pointing deeper into the forest. Nine walked in the direction the arrow said to and Kal followed a few paces behind.
...Several Hours Later...
Nine stopped walking and sat on a log with a sigh, she had assumed her masters nearest location was somewhere nearby. They had been walking for what felt like miles and the crystal hadn't changed at all. The arrow was steadfast in its direction and as more and more time passed Nine had found herself wondering why on earth her master hadn't caught up to them yet, and with the sky starting to darken she had decided it was best for her and eight to camp outside.
"We'll sleep here tonight and start this annoying trek again in the morning" she said clearly irritated at having to sleep outside. But Kal didn't care, she had spent the entirety of their trip cursing and complaining about having to walk like some kind of peasant. This had made Kal consider the possibility of cars or planes, but considering everything he had seen so far it was more likely to be a horse or something similar. Kal had allowed his mind to wander very little while they walked, concerned Nine's loud voice would attract the attention of the some kind of animal or person.
"Is it safe?" said Kal
"It's fine, the odds of us getting attacked in the Bone Forest is super low. There's hardly any monsters here, and the only humanoids who live in these woods are either elves or nymphs. From what I've read both are very peaceful creatures." responded Nine without worry. She wasn't concerned about any dangers, after all they had already survived a Magic Knight and Mage team. Although she wasn't sure exactly how he had done it, Nine at least able to assume that the combat data that had been infused into him for his master to use later was active. She still couldn't tell if it was just the natural ability of whatever race of elves her master had created, or if it was that Eight's body had been pushed far passed the realm of even gold rank because of the amount of combat data his body contained. Regardless she was sure that with him at least being able to buy time she could use her magic and clear out any harm with little worry.
Nine turned to Eight intent on having him go collect wood for them to start a fire only for her world to suddenly go black.
Kal reacted immediately to the feeling of danger, inhaling a large amount of air and starting to move before his seals had even started to glow. His slowed perception showed him an arrow exiting through the front of Nine's head and another right where his head had been previously. Before Kal even had time to attempt to track the arrows a figure materialized in front of him and he felt a huge weight impact his chest. He was unable to right himself in the air before his back impacted something hard, a tree, he noted.
Kal had no idea who these attackers where but he had no intention of dying... again. He hoped to his feet and started to regulate his breathing allowing his body to preform at its best. But with every breathe he took he felt a searing pain in his chest. Pushing aside the pain and turned his attention to the person who had hit him, and was this time faced with three figures who seemed to be staring at him in shock.
"You're an elf" said the figure in the middle, 'A female based on the voice' thought Kal
"So I've been called" Responded Kal
He was unsure how strong these people were but he defintly hadn't been able to defend against the woman's sneak attack, if her companions were around the same level of strength it would be best for him to cooperate. At least until he knew why they had attacked him, but before he could begin to say he didn't want any trouble the figure to the right spoke up.
"Who cares if he's an Elf, he's not a member of the tribe. Anyone that isn't a Purple Crescent Elf is trespassing and should be killed!"
— The End — Write a review
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