A white light flashed and a human male appeared right in the middle of the square in the broad daylight. Luckily, that meant the square was empty.

The man groaned on the ground, his head pounding as if Cerberus himself decided to stomp on his head. At this moment, he would likely prefer that instead of this migraine. His eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness as a screen appeared before his eyes.

  [OS… installation…]
  [Missing components… Calculating…]
  [Unknown ERROR]

  [Rebooting...]
  [Rebooting complete]

  [Components not found… Searching… Data fragmentation found…]
  [Defragmenting... Done]
  [Compressing... Done]
  [OS… functional: 12%]

  [Components:
  [Enhanced Evolution system... Data corrupted.
  Mortal-grade path: Resistance, Skills... Installed
  Divine-grade path: Missing]

  [Personal Spatial Storage… Missing]  

  [AI Assist… Missing]
  [Replacing with backup UI Assist... Installed]

  [Quest and bounty system… Missing]

  [Plug and Hack system... Missing]

  [Modules:
  Language Comprehension Device… Missing
  Encyclopaedia… Empty
  Class system… Missing
  Skill tree… Missing
  Battle Assist… Missing
  Conqueror module… Missing
  Analyser… Installed]

  [Soul Encasing in progress
  Estimated time: 12 seconds]

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

Dream

"Vladimir! David! Dinner!" A beautiful woman shouted out of the window at the two of them, who were playing together near the lake. They were solving some equations in the sand. They were so complex that the meaning eluded even Vladimir. He observed them, but everytime he focused on a certain part, it blurred.

"Come on, Vlad," the man took his son by the shoulder and turned him around to face him.

"Okay, dad," 5-year old Vladimir answered and looked up to him. His father takes him on the shoulders and slowly skipped into their home. His mother, with long black hair, beautiful face dominated by hazelnut eyes, cute nose and full lips, put the dishes on the table.

They all sat down, and his parents started to talk. It sounded muffled and Vlad could not understand them. He observed floating numbers and letters in his soup, slowly merging in the same equations as on the beach. He still could not comprehend them, got annoyed and so he ate them all with great gusto.

Suddenly, everything darkened and he was an adult. His parents’ eyes disappeared and instead, there was only undiluted darkness. On his father's chest a flower of blood bloomed. He could not move, yell or do anything. His mother suddenly held a gun instead of a spoon. Then, she aimed at him…

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

  [Remodelling complete. Soul encased. Protection enabled.]
  [Estimated time to fully integrate: 12 Hours]
  [BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!]

A deafening noise woke him up in an instant and the screens disappeared.

“What. The. Heck…” Vladimir groaned and grabbed his head. He slowly sat up and with his blurry eyes attempted to conclude his location. He could not see nothing more that a hazy shapes. Still... It seemed wrong somehow.

He noted a movement in the corner of his vision. His eyes slowly focused on the soldiers who were moving towards him. His instincts and adrenalin took over. His still-dazed mind replaced the figures with the soldiers from his lab. It was no matter they were small and green.

He leapt up on his feet and ran away in the opposite direction. He blindly sprinted left and right, running through the empty side-alleys. It took a good 15 minutes of an expert parkour to lose them.

He stopped in an alley filled with garbage and dived into one of the piles as his vision slowly cleared. He could not help but marvel where the fuck he was. He was surrounded by a hot metallic pipes, marble walls and piles of smelly, nasty garbage. How could he not notice before? Where the hell he was? He dived into the nearest pile as loud, frantic steps clanked on the ground and muffled yells of language he could not understand sounded over the alleyway.

He peeked at them from a hiding spot and... could not believe his own eyes. A green being that he could not help but tag as a good, old goblin, frantically searched the garbage piles. Goblins... What the hell? How? For a moment he thought he contracted hallucinogenic schizophrenia. That they caught him, drugged him and this was some kind of VR to make him lose his sanity. However, all of it was too real.The smell, the pain, the memories...

They gave up quickly and left, probably because of the gagging smell. He thanked his training and his master as he did not already puke his guts out.

He took a deep breath and promptly regretted it. The smell caught him unprepared as his adrenalin subsided. The disgusting smell hit him hard and he darted out of his hiding spot.

He observed the enormous buildings, encased in metal and the constant hissing and clanking of what could only be steam machines.

"Well, this is not Earth... So, where the hell am I?!" Vlad muttered, bewildered. He was examining the metallic buildings and the twin stars above him, attempting to find… something. He did not know what as his mind was utterly blank. The horror he felt was constantly battling over his consciousness with his rationalism.

Another world... Goblins... Were aliens? Outburst of half-insane laugh escaped his lips.

As Vlad madly chuckled, he spotted an inhumanely fast approaching child-like, green figure through the corner of his eye. An ugly face appeared before him as he rapidly turned to it. Next, he felt as something hard hit his head. Darkness encompassed him and he collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

Koul’E city. A city of rock, steel and steam set in the middle of a peninsula called Shattered Plains pointing to the Whispering Sea. It was and still is, a technological and architectural marvel of the Grand Orcen Empire.

It was also a city where orcs came to seek fame and riches, ruling with the steel fist and the devils plotted in the darkness.

Pointy towers were reaching for the skies with the corrupt and depraved orcish royalty, while on the ground goblins suffered under their firm heels, fed to the city as sacrifices to propel their economy and debauchery.

Their society was built on power and their morality was similar to the old roman decadency, but enhanced by their typical innate savageness and greed.

Three-storied, metallic buildings on spider web-like streets sprouted in cascades forming clean avenues. Three gorgeous granite roman-like temples, designed by the best architects available, dominated the middle of the city.

The only bigger building was the Tower of Devil directly in the middle of the city made from gray marble, tall around 50 meters and wide around 20 meters in diameter. Around it were circulating three large, tear-shaped red crystals with discharges of energy cracking from them.

Bronze and steel pipes interweaved the whole city, connecting everything with heat, steam and water.

Trolleys, propelled by steam, were riding in the middle of the streets, transporting the orcen citizens and driven by a very few select, trustworthy goblin slaves.

The nobles were riding automobiles that were looking like tanks crossbred with trucks so they could accommodate their more prominent proportions.

As it was in a middle of day, a few guards were patrolling on empty streets, harassing working slaves, or having a ‘good time’ with stretchy and perky ‘late-work’ slave-goblinetess, who were strangely cute, even according to human standards; their cute faces, supple skin, wide hips and tall around 1.4 metres were sought even by orcs when they wanted a good time.

On the other side were the goblin males that were all ugly, with two large eyes, too big of a mouth filled with sharp teeth, scrawny, but muscular and greenish skin, tall around 1.2 meters.

Goblins were enslaved, malnourished and weak. They were taken as pests, slaves, and occasional snacks.

However, one goblin fought to save his kind. His path was the path of carnage, slaughter and praying in the name of his god. Staumaz, the god of steam. Too bad, the goblin did not succeed.

Inside the Temple of Judgement, seated on the Judicial Square, in one of the six grand halls, a beaten up goblin stood on the pedestal, naked as the day he was born, only wearing chains and a system-blocking choker. He was looking upwards at the old orcen judge.

The gallery around him was filled with shouting orcs, wearing silky clothes, embedded by steel plates and accompanied by their slave-goblins, wearing rags, leashes connected to the same chokers chokers.

“Fallen inquisitor Sou'Rek! How do you plead?!” The old white-haired, wrinkled orc, wearing a decorative shiny plate-armour and an antique pistol on the side, derisively shouted at the small goblin to silence the full gallery.

“Not guilty! It was all for the god Staumaz and for the glorious Steam!” he shouted back, even though beaten up and missing half of his teeth.

“Don’t you dare to take His name in vain, you fallen dirt! Heretic! You are accounted for treason, revolution, 12 murders of noble orcs, several accounts of thievery from noble orcs! Moreover, even for an attack on an illustrious Devil!” The old orc yelled and after a moment of silence, a roaring and booing poured from the gallery on the unfaltering goblin.

“That’s a lie!” Sou'Rek cried out, but was silenced with an iron baton smacking his back. He hissed in pain, but stood firm.

“Silence! You were not asked! So, is it?! Are you perhaps saying that the noble orc Morda Silkpants and the great enchanter devil Loo'ra The Enchanter are liars?” The judge smirked as a peal of ear-splitting laughter erupted from the gallery.

The goblin prisoner ground his remaining teeth and did not respond. He knew. He knew that they would either execute him in the gallows or the Coliseum. He failed. The god abandoned him like yesterday's trash. His [Class] turned to a [Fallen inquisitor] right before he was defeated. He lost his strength, the power that allowed him to lead. All of his work... Gone like that. The justified wrath he felt was soon squashed by his innate ability that set him apart from his race. The single ability for which he was hailed as a hero by his fellow revolutionaries and... bah... friends. Always being calm. Such a strange ability for a goblin. However, when it kicked in, the full power of the goblin was released as he was no longer controlled by his urges and instincts.

“Hahahaha! Ehm!” The judge stopped laughing his ass off and slammed with a hammer to call for silence. “Well, young Sou'Rek. It no longer matters. The punishment was decided! To the Coliseum with you! You are sentenced to Humiliating Three Deaths!” The final judgment surprised him a bit, shown by slightly enlarged pupils. Probably the devil enchanter pulled some strings. Three painful deaths. A shiver ran through him.

“Death! Death! Death!” The gallery menacingly chanted and stomped on the ground. The orcish guard took his chains, smacked him again on his back to urge him to move and dragged him into the cellars under the city.

There he got another painful beating, this time not sufficient to hurt him too much. At least not enough to break his bones. With a final slam, he was thrown into the dark, damp cell. He shivered in the cold, his eyes not used to the sudden darkness. The only source of light came from under the doors.

“Umm… Hello?” A quiet woman's voice reverberated in the damp, dark cell.

“Kek!” The goblin Inquisitor squeaked in fright. Again, his innate ability worked as it was supposed to and he calmed himself. “Damn woman,” he growled and sat on the opposite side and leaned on the metallic wall. A sigh of relief came from his mouth as the coldness numbed the pain to a degree.

“Hehe… The name is Adele. A human. And didn’t they teach you… No probably not…” she said after a prolonged silence.

“Human here? How?” Sou'Rek asked incredulously. All of the human folk were behind the Blood Steppes.

Blood Steppes were a large area, as big as several kingdoms, between the Grand Orcen Empire, human towns, and elven empire. It was brimming with Monsters, deadly cults, bandits and criminals just on the outskirts.

Further, it was even a harsher and more uncompromising environment with infested swamps, deadly forests and mountains filled with savage goblins and mythical beasts. Anyone daring to step into that place was either insane, criminal or a powerful individual seeking riches. Often all of the three at once. He had a plan to secure a keep there. He never got to it.

“Long story. I just… got on the outskirts of the city a few days back. Got caught. Locked here. Interrogated. You know, a normal day,” she mockingly laughed at herself, as if she told some good joke. “And your name? After all, I want to know who is my cellmate,” she slightly smirked.

Sou'Rek’s eyes finally got used to the dark, he saw a naked human woman sitting on the ground, leaning on the metal wall. The first thing he noticed was her dark, short hair, then red scars running all over her body from the whip and long legs. A trained body he concluded, but overall weak. Maybe a villager girl? But still... How could she get here? Questions swirled in the goblins mind, but he suppressed it.

“Nasty… Humans are ugly,” Sou'Rek frowned. “Sou'Rek."

"Adele. What do you mean nasty?" she half-jokingly defended herself.

"Small heads, big bodies... Nasty," he replied monotonously. "How do you even speak our language? Humans are stupid. They cannot speak ours.”

“Secret… Do you know how to get out of here?” she winked at him with hope.

“No. These walls are made from alchemical steel. Even a dwarven bomb is not enough to breach it,” he answered with a twisted sense of pride, coming from the knowledge that this steel was discovered by a goblin! Even though the credit went to the devil master and orcs... But he knows the truth!

“Well, I tried with the orc, when they had... fun with me," she shivered. "They want to enjoy, before they dispose of me... So, I guess this is it? This is how I die? In a damp cell in some god-forsaken land?” Adele sighed in defeat. In the past few days, she attempted numerous approaches. To plead, to steal, to fuck the orcs to the death… Nothing worked.

Sou'Rek hissed at the words 'god-forsaken', but decided to let it be. Humans are stupid anyway. “You do not know? Heh... If you are in this cell, that means you go to the Coliseum,” Sou'Rek said, smirking. He stared at her and tried to decipher her as he was trying to think out how to use her to his advantage.

“Oh?” she perked up as she smelled hope.

“Don’t give in to hope much. We are nothing more than a bare snack now, and it seems that my ‘allies’,” he spat on the ground, “left me for scraps. Fucking traitor,” wrath swelled up in him, but his innate ability suppressed it quickly.

Adele began interrogating the goblin, trying to find something to her advantage, as was painfully drilled into her from a young age. It's not like they had to go anytime soon.