“If you like food in Crenada, and flying to Spahrain. If you’ve been to Ganada, and are living in Bain.” The song reverberated through dark misty woods filled with gnarled trees, devoid of life. Overhead something loomed, its shadow lording over the lifeless land like a tyrannical monster - a castle stood, also as dead as the land below. Its dark stone walls and twisted towers, its gruesome, cracked skin and frightening horns. But contrary to the darkness and the gloom a young boy, in a white trench coat outlined with red, walks on a dirt path, seemingly without a care in the world. The singing stops and the boy, Cor, begins talking to himself.
“That castle looks really cool. Too bad the warlord looted it a long time ago, otherwise I would’ve done the looting. But maybe I could ask Anton to buy it if the castle is still alive after the battle. Then can start the Ibinian branch of the company!” After mumbling these thoughts to himself, Cor goes back to singing. Soon he arrives in the clearing in which the castle is, greeted by a gated rampart.
An arrow can then suddenly be seen in Cor’s hand, grasped by the shaft, before the sound of the bow can even be heard.
“Nice try Mr./Mrs. Archer person, but you can’t touch this Cor with that slow of an arrow,” Cor said scanning the rampart above for the area where the sniper could be hiding. Seeing nothing, he continued to walk into the gate.
A bit above him laid Lei aka Mr./Mrs. Archer person, crouching behind a parapet. They did not expect his arrow to be caught by the boy. That was no ordinary boy as they had expected. It seemed that the sages had sent over an ace to fight him, and they’d need everything at his disposal to deal with him. They quickly looked over the parapet into the castle and seeing the boy just strolling around, they swiftly moved to another sniping location they’d scouted beforehand.
“Hmm, this is taking too long... I’m kinda bored. Where’d Mr/Ms Archer person go? Damn that’s starting to get annoying.” He then yelled out, “If you don’t come out Mr./Ms. Archer person, I’m calling you... uh... archer person kay?” His question was met with silence. “Okay, archer person it- “ Before the sentence finished another arrow was in the palm of Cor’s raised hands. He quickly turned in the direction the arrow came from and his eyes flashed a quick blue.
“Heh, I’ve got you now!” Cracks formed and the ground depressed under Cor’s feet. With a quick flash and an afterimage, Cor arrived at one of the towers of the castle, breaking through the wall. Inside was a simple bed, a room full of dust, a few books, and rusted chains, but no person inside.
“Tsk, where’d they go?” Cor said, shaking the dust off himself. One floor below crawling under a bed was Lei, congratulating themselves about the timing that the illusion managed to activate, otherwise they’d currently be blood splatter on the wall.
Now that he’s in range let’s try mind linking, Lei thought. Both combatant's eyes turned blue and Lei appeared in front of a luxurious building, with a statue rising above him, looking down as if watching him. All around, buildings of brick and glass rose. In the background, buildings were being built and smokestacks were rising in the skyline. The city was eerily empty but that didn’t bother Lei. Well now I’m in the kid’s head, I’ll take the time to convince him to surrender or maybe even have him switch sides... it’ll be a win if we could get him Nova Ordo, it’ll be a huge win! They let off a small smile, his fangs showing as he walked into the building.
Inside was a clock rising above an empty floor and tunnels leading in different directions shown in a language Lei couldn’t understand. The ceiling was well lit, ornately decorated, and painted a scene of the night sky.
“Damn, this place is pretty,” Lei said, whistling at the splendor of the room. “After this war is over, I’m going to go see and see if I can find this place, rather than seeing it in the mindscape.“
They entered one of the tunnels and followed it in the direction it led, ending up right in front of an empty train track. They stood on the edge waiting, but nothing happened.
“Where’s the train?” Lei asked. This was odd, and a sudden uneasiness gnawed at them. They turned to leave but instead they were pushed backward. They managed to see the image of a small boy in a trench coat giggling as he fell over.
Damn, I should’ve expected that. But instead of their back hitting the train tracks, they landed in a wet, grassy field, looking at a smoke-filled sky.
“GET THE HELL UP, SOLDIER,” a man was looking down, he was dressed in armor from antiquity and yelled at the fallen Lei. Lei pushed themselves up, but their body felt heavier. They looked down and saw that they were covered in bloodstained armor as well.
What the hell is happening now? They thought, looking around a battlefield, with swords, magic, bows, and spears chopping, stabbing, killing, dismembering. It was a whirlwind of chaos, with men in steel clashing with those in white and gold armor. The steel men were winning and Lei was lucky that he wasn’t wearing the gold and white armor.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING STANDING THERE! MOVE!” the man from before yelled at Lei. They growled in discontent but noticed the fangs were still there.
Nice, I’m still a vampire. With this in mind, he picked up a fallen spear nearby and rushed into the fray, dominating with his overwhelming strength. The smoke sometimes let the sunshine through and soon the blue and gray gave way to an ominous red and black. They had almost driven back the opposing foe.
“Good work soldier!” The man who was yelling at Lei came up behind them and patted them on the back. He looked to be in his upper 40s, with his hair going gray and wrinkles spreading upon his face. Despite that, his complexion was glowing, full of life. In his hand, he held a blood-covered battle axe. A smile stretched from ear to ear and he looked at Lei with an earnest expression of pride and gratefulness, making Lei uncomfortable.
“Uh yeah, sure, no problem,” Lei didn’t know what was happening but didn’t want to accidentally trigger a subconscious defense system. If they acted like an outsider, then the brain would know and do its best to get Lei out.
“Come with me boy. As the one with the most kills, you deserve a drink. C’mon, I’ll buy one for you. Anyways, what's your name?” The man asked, in a string, not giving Lei a chance to respond.
“Huh? Uh, ok. My name is Lei,” Lei responded, thinking not to declare their last name in fear of a foreign tongue arousing suspicion.
“Then Lei, my lad, you’re going to go far in this war. I bet within 2, wait no 1 year you’ll manage to make it to the Unbound.”
“The Unbound?” Lei asked, confused. Immediately they regretted it as suddenly they could feel a pair of eyes upon them. They began sweating, praying that they didn’t notice something wrong.
“You don’t know the Unbound! The group of best fighters in the kingdom! They’re a household name!” The man responded, shocked.
“Ohhh, those Unbound. I thought you meant something else because I’m probably not at that level. Anyways I failed to get your name,” Lei responded. Suddenly the gaze was lifted and Lei let out an internal sigh of relief.
“Don’t be modest! Your speed is outstanding. My brother is part of them and you’re nearly at his level. Where did you learn spear fighting like that?” That was a good question. Where did Lei suddenly know how to use a spear? He looked at the spear in his hand with a sense of uneasiness. “And my name is Björn Letre.” This name reminded Lei of something for a microsecond before he forgot once more?
Who’s Björn Letre? Why is that name so familiar? What’s going on? They gulped and suddenly felt faint.
“I’m not sure. Usually, I fight with a bow.” He finally responded.
“Hey you’re not looking too good my comrade, Björn said, noticing Lei’s face. “Must be battle exhaustion. Well, let’s get you that alcohol.”
***
Three years had passed since Lei had first fallen into this world. The war had been going on the entire time and Lei had given up all hopes of escape. All their methods to escape the mindscape were used, they were now stuck here with Björn. Ironic that it happened every time they encountered an ancient being. But Björn ended up being right, with Lei managing to become one of the Unbound for the Jethna empire, an empire of knights and weapon masters, in a year. They had met with Björn’s younger brother who used a shield.
Sighing after thinking about everything, Lei turned to sleep, his only time of relief. Almost as quickly as sleep came, they had lost it once more and they heard the war horn’s sound resound through the camp. Quickly wearing light plated iron armor, he picked up his bow and spear and rushed out.
“Hey Björn, what’s going on?” Lei asked running out of his tent, seeing Björn outside talking to someone.
“On the eastern side, the church forces are attacking, and unlike before are fighting with the vigor they had at the start of this war,” Björn replied, his face filled with worry. “Let’s go!” he said, turning to Lei. They both ran towards the sound of the battle. Arriving there, they met with a member of the church’s force who Björn swiftly decapitated in one blow. The scene was chaotic, as people were killed, some in the process of dying, and some lay injured on the ground crying for help.
Both of them got to work quickly. Lei sniped the opponents they could see, and whenever someone got close a quick movement of the spear sent another body to the ground. As more soldiers rushed in, the tide began to turn on the church’s forces. Lei lost sight of Bjorn in chaos as the night raged on and the battle continued.
“RETREAT!” A loud cry could be heard from the other side of the battlefield. The church forces quickly turned to run back, but their opponents took this chance to attack their open backs. Soon Lei reunited with a blood-covered Bjorn as they went on the offensive.
“The end is in sight. We have those ****** beat!” Bjorn let out a heartfelt laugh, and Lei smiled that they had won. But as soon as they got a chance to breathe, something had to interrupt. A loud screech could be heard, and upon the dawning day, a figure could be seen in the red glare of the rising sun. It flew in and quickly landed on the Jethna soldiers, crushing them into a bloody pulp.
“What the hell is a dragon doing here!” Lei cried in disbelief. In front of him was a copper dragon, slaughtering friends and foes alike, with no regard. “Is this why they retreated?” Lei asked.
“Even if it ain't we have to go and stop that dragon.” With this, he lifted his hefty battle axe and charged towards the manxome. Lei pulled out his bow and began shooting some of the arrows he had specially commissioned. The arrows flew, releasing a sonic boom, but instead of piercing, or even scratching the dragon, they were met with a dull clang.
The pieces now fell into place and realized that the dragon in front of them was supposed to be Cor, the kid they were supposed to be fighting. On top of that, he finally recognized Bjorn - he was the one and only Bloodless Bjorn, the berserker who fought off a dragon. Bjorn was almost a household name because of this feat, a childhood fairytale. He was said to leap at the dragon with his mighty axe, and every time he was pushed back, he leaped once more till his foe was vanquished. It wasn’t that pretty as Bjorn had just hooked a ride on the dragon’s back and was trying not to fall off.
“Well...” said Lei, “looks like I don’t have to worry, Bjorn’s going to win this anyway. Otherwise, why would he be called Bloodless Bjorn right?” And it was at this moment that Lei knew he messed up. He could suddenly feel the piercing eyes of hundreds of thousands as the subconscious defense activated. “Well shite.”
The scene and sounds of the battle faded away, as suddenly a white void, filled with millions of eyes hovering over him, came into sight. Lei lay bare as the subconscious defense began to judge his fate. They began to light up, but they stopped and turned to look away from Lei as if they were receiving orders from somewhere. They disappeared and soon Lei was left alone in the blank space.
“What the heck was that?” They had heard tales regarding the fearsome subconscious defense from their father, about how in the mind, they were unbeatable. But then they had just left him alone. “So now how do I g-” and then a hole formed under his feet.
***
Lei woke up on soft grass. They got up and looked around, seeing nothing but grass all around and a temple sticking out, a rock in the sea of green. He began running towards it and upon reaching was stopped by a giant set of doors, which he easily pushed open.
“Welcome.” A clear voice echoed through the room before reaching Lei. As Lei’s eyes adjusted to the gloomy lighting, in front of him he saw in the temple, a man ensnared by giant chains. His body had a metallic sheen and glowed in the dim sunlight coming from the open door.
“Who are you?” Lei asked. He felt no danger from the figure in front of him. He walked closer to the figure.
“You don’t recognize me? No of course you wouldn’t, you’ve only seen me as a child,” said the man after some time.
“Cor?” Lei questioned.
“Ding-ding-ding. Give a prize to our genius winner, the archer person. So what’s your name archer person?” The man sarcastically said. Lei stayed silent. “Fine, then be quiet, I’ll get it myself.” Pain then coursed through Lei’s head.
“What did you do to me?” Lei asked, clutching his head. His mind choosing fight over flight, their fist balled up and he got ready to punch.
“Nothing much, Lei. I just had to answer the question you wouldn’t.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing much. I am an expert in mental magic, after all. I just had to go look for the information you wouldn’t reveal. Oh and don’t worry, I didn’t see any of the private things,” older Cor responded with a sadistic smile.
“How!? Mental chains mean you can’t do anything, let alone use mana.”
“The real chain is this temple. The moment you stepped in, you were already in my trap.”
Well f*ck. Was the thought that went through Lei’s mind.
***
“And then when I escape that son of a b*tch emperor uses divine magic to hit me with this damn curse, so he could try and turn to be back to his tool. Luckily I’m a genius and separated myself into two pieces to negate part of the attack, right?”
“Right.” This was not what Lei had expected to happen. For the past two hours, he had heard the older Cor’s story. It was a good story but Lei just wanted to go home. “Anyways are you done yet? I want to go home.”
“Almost. Before you go you want to see something horrifying?” He said as if finally revealing his true purpose in bringing Lei here.
“No?”
“Well too bad your opinions matter less than a micronation’s,” Cor cackled. Pain began to flow once more through Lei’s skull again, but something was different. The last time was as if something was being pulled out, but now something was being forced in. Unearthly shrieks echoed around the small temple and Cor watched the kneeling Lei clutching his head. “I just forcefully implanted the concept of soul magic into you. I’m not so sorry about this but I’ll also forcefully activate it now too.”
Along with his splitting skull, Lei now experienced vertigo, as the floor in front of his eyes began to spin. He tried to hold on to his consciousness, but in the end, was unable to do so. He finally dropped, and after a minute came back. Both sensations had disappeared as swiftly as they had come, and Lei looked up at Cor.
Instead of seeing Cor, instead was an amalgamation, an eldritch monstrosity. Blood red and stained with ink-black, the mess of heads, arms, and legs from hundreds of people, monsters, and entities.
“Scary ain’t it?” The amalgamation spoke, with all its mouth opening and releasing a horrendous sound. Lei’s sanity began to fade, and he threw up at the horrifying sight in front of them. “Well, I should end it here before you end up brain dead.”
***
Meanwhile, on the outside, young Cor had used ink to draw on Lei’s face and then dragged him over the border to win due to disqualification.
Good job, Carp! Fighting against Cor really made me wrack my brain