I utter out a meek. “What?” That’s all I can say in front of him. I don’t know why, but there’s just an aura… something around him that makes me unable to speak to him.

“First of all, I want you to know it wasn’t my idea to bring you to my manor. That would be one of my girls, Aissu, the girl with scales, and red hair.”

I nod, looking down. He doesn’t want me here.

“That being said, you are the first person to actually survive entering the room. The suit of armor at the entrance would have killed you in a second had you any malice towards me, or any sense of disloyalty in general.”

I look back at the door. “How?” I ask, before I close my mouth and make sure it stays shut. I shouldn’t speak out of turn.

“Emotion-sense, a piece of magic bonded to the armor. Invaluable, especially when I have enemies.”

I nod, looking at his desk, unable yet to look at him.

“I need someone who is willing to interact with the girls you see on a daily basis. Someone who is interested in making friends with them. Someone who is willing to fight for me.”

I look at him in alarm. “I… I can’t fight. I’m… weak, useless.”

“Perhaps now, but I’m not interested in your doubting bullshit. In return, you will be offered a place to stay for an indefinite amount of time, training in the art of melee, and in the practice of magic. If that shows promise, there may be more for you.”

“I won’t turn it down. But I don’t…” I say, then look up at him, ready for an expression of anger, to be silenced, but he waits. “I don’t know why you picked me. You could have had anyone from the village. So many that are stronger, smarter. There’s a small training grounds for boys to become soldiers… they would make good warriors.”

“Sure, but this line of… work requires a very specific type of person. One that is either born for it… or one that is made for it.” He stands, putting a hand on my shoulder. I come up to his chest, but he’s still tall, and he’s much broader than I would have guessed. “You are the latter.”

“How?”

“Aissu found you. You were about to die. She had watched you walk away from the forest. She saw you beg for scraps, she saw you die. Tell me truly…” he says, and turns to me, pulling me towards the window so that I can overlook the port village. “Do you still care for them? Do you still consider yourself human above all else?”

When I look over the village, I can see the beauty. I love the look of the waves crashing against the stone… but a feeling a dread covers me. All the days spent on my knees, begging for help and never getting it. I thought I was a monster, and now I wish I was. They have treated me better in the day I have been here than my entire life back there.

Some sort of resolve enters my voice. I’m not sure where it comes from. “No. They abandoned me. I held out hope for so long…” I feel a tear roll down my cheek. “Why would they… how come they never helped me?”

“People can be very, very cruel to the ones below them. We know that better than many. The monsters that inhabit this manor are all victims, indirectly.”

“Indirectly? What do you mean?”

He smiles. “Now I know you do not hold any love for them as a race, I can bring you to the Realm Beyond Realms. I don’t expect you to hate your fellow man, but any loyalty to the race itself could spell disaster for what I am about to show you.”

He walks up to the bookshelf behind him, and whispers words that sound… ancient, and powerful. The bookcase splits apart, and swings open, revealing a bright white hole in… not the wall, but what feels like… everything.

He puts a hand on my shoulder, laughs, and then pushes me through. I feel like I am swirling in an endless tide of water, yet I feel as though I am in the eye of the storm, unable to be moved my the currents.

“Klayden.” Says a voice so loud and powerful it shakes my soul. I see only bright light, and I hear nothing else.

Then, I am on the ground, coughing and spluttering, my arms the only thing stopping me from slamming face-first into stone. I scramble upwards, reeling to the side until I slam into what feels like a pillar. I look up, seeing black teeth and black horns looking down at me, and I jump away. The being laughs, then continues walking. My eyes follow.

A massive open space, with stone pathways intersecting a garden of luscious purple grass, lays in front of me. A hand places itself on my shoulder, and I look back to the man. “This… this is our world, Klayden.”

He walks forward, beckoning me to come. We pass an intricate fountain spurting crystal-clear water, and hedges of purple leaves until we arrive at a massive circle in the ground. “This is the Realm Beyond Realms. A place, a network of pocket dimensions.”

“It’s… like nothing I’ve ever seen before. How… does it fit?”

“It’s not connected to the manor. When we went through the portal, we came here. It’s a place where all Monsters are truly safe from the humans. Demons, dragons, Slimes, beasts, anything with the blood of both humans and gods.”

“The blood of both? Are people like Aissu humans too?”

He chuckles. “In a way, yes, but never say that to her. Monsters, as the humans call them, are those with the blood of the gods of nature, of the elements, and many others.”

He points to a single doorway that stands in the middle of the entire plaza, embroidered with gold, but otherwise unadorned. Multiple other statues surround the plaza, all facing inwards, all pointing to the door.

“That was meant to be where the God of Triumph would make his own realm. Unfortunately, he did not make it that far.”

I look at the statues, none of them looking remotely human. “What are these?”

“These are the Gods original forms, many of which were lost when they died. All of these still live, thanks to their descendants.”

“So there are actual Gods here?” I look around. “Where are they?”

“Each has their own dimension to call their own. The God of Triumph was the only one strong enough to rip apart the fabric, but the others are strong enough to cut open the seams, so to speak.”

“Why do they all point inwards… to the door?”

“That is a long story, but I will summarize it briefly. Once, all the gods lived in harmony. Gods of Emotion, and the rest, the ones of the world. Eventually, however, humans, with their strong emotions and love of war, brought power to the gods of emotion, and it unbalanced the scale. The Gods of Emotion decided to take the power of the rest, leading to a war of unknowable proportion. In the end, our side lost.”

“That doesn’t explain why they point inwards.”

“The God of Beasts. The God of Night and Day. The God of Dragons. The God of Tar. The God of Fire. What do all these have in common?”

I think for a moment. Beasts are living creatures. Night and day is of the world. Dragons are living. Tar is… a liquid.. I think? And fire is… nature.

“They are all natural.” I say, and he nods. “Yes. They are all natural, that’s one way of putting it. More accurately, none of their names deal with emotion. They deal with… objects, or entities, or the powers of nature.”

I look at the doorway in the middle. “The God of Triumph. It’s an emotion… does that mean he hurt people here? Do they hate him?”

“It would make sense, yes? But it’s entirely the opposite. Not a single person in this entire place hates the God of Triumph. Many worship him.”

“But I thought you said the gods fought, and that the gods of emotion were on the side of the humans?”

“I did. All but one of them.”

Ah. I see now. “Why? Why would he help… us?”

“Where is the Triumph in destroying these weaker than you? Where is the Triumph winning against an enemy that doesn’t want to fight, that only wants to live?”

I look at the statues nearby. “So were is the God? Does he have his own dimension.”

He looks at me strangely. “I told you, he didn’t make it.”

“Yes, but you also said the gods reincarnated through their descendants.”

He sighs. “He didn’t have any. He will never return, and the entire Monster race may die with him.”