I stumbled back into the lair and threw Will's corpse to the ground.

"Hey. Anyone got a resurrection spell around here? I feel kinda bad that this guy never knew that his family got away."

Sinan, Artfelia, Teliese, and Sephirah were gathered by the entrance, apparently waiting for me to come back. None of them responded to me, but all just stared blankly at Will.

"Jesus..." Sephirah muttered.

"Woah. Leave it to a lowly demon like you to do something like that," Teliese said, berating me.

I felt tired. I was shaky and felt a little sick. The initial thrill of the killings had started to wear off and the novelty I felt at playing the villain was no longer there. I wondered if maybe I could have gone a little easier on them. 

Did I take it too far? If so, why don't I feel anything? I know I felt terrible after I pushed that woman into the killer back in Japan, so why don't I feel like that now? I just feel...tired. They didn't deserve to die so painfully, I know. I wish I could go back and do it over, find a better way to kill them all. But what's done is done. I don't feel any sort of guilt. I just can't shake the feeling that maybe I messed up somewhere. No. It doesn't matter how I killed them. Either way they wind up dead. I did used to be human, so maybe that's why I feel I should've gone easier on them.

This world just didn't feel real to me yet. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't imagine those guys as anything less than NPCs in a game. Maybe it was this demon body that erased my guilt. I felt uneasy thinking that my personality was being altered. I didn't like the thought that I could lose control as easily as I did in the village. Although at this point, I didn't want to go back to my old personality, as I was sure that, knowing what I'd done, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. The only sense of remorse that I did feel was that Will would never get to know that his family escaped. It was a stupid thing to get caught up on but it lingered on my mind.

Jeez, I feel like I've had a hangover.

"Oh, Melly!" 

It was Artfelia.

"Your first kill Melly, well done. It looks like you really did a number on this guy. Hahaha." She said while running up to me. "I was stunned for a second there. I didn't imagine you'd go this harsh on them."

The stench of the rotting corpse filled the room and I could see Teliese, Sephirah, and Sinan holding their noses tightly. Artfelia, however, inhaled deeply and seemed to be overjoyed.

"Ahh. The sweet aroma of death. Anyway, you wanted a way to revive him right? Well, that's gonna be tricky, but it should be doable. Come this way" she beamed.

I trudged along behind, following her, only vaguely aware of my surroundings and what was going on. I was so out of it that it didn't even strike me as odd that she'd just blindly go along with what I was planning and not lecture me about how I let some of the humans escape.

***

"Aimoto! Aimoto!"

"Huh?"

"Finally you're awake. You passed out as soon as I gave you the sword."

Aimoto was regaining his senses. He remembered what had happened well now. The goddess Rishtafar had given him what she called a holy sword. The moment he took it, a dazzling light had shot out from it and been absorbed into his body. It was so powerful he had passed out.

"Now!" Rishtafar started whilst standing on the bed in the inn room in what she thought was a cool-looking position, "We must find you a party. You can't defeat the Devil King alone now, can you?"

Aimoto crawled to the end of the room and pressed his back up against the flimsy wooden door. He held his sword up towards the goddess and the wood creaked loudly behind him.

"What is this? What's going on? Why aren't I in Japan anymore?" Aimoto demanded, quivering.

He was just a normal high school student. Or at least, he had been one before being summoned to Exstrephia. He didn't have that many friends, but other than that there was nothing abnormal about him. That was until that day. He had been walking to his school in the morning. It was around 8:00 AM. The school he attended was in the middle of the city, so he had to walk in a rush hour crowd just to get to it everyday. He didn't mind the large crowds all that much really. He just tuned everyone else out with music and ignored everything around him.

It was a regular day like this when it happened. As Aimoto was swerving though the streets lined with apartments and office blocks he had heard a deafening scream. He quickly tore out his earphones, wincing in pain as they scraped against his ear, and turned to look in the direction of the scream. There was a man holding a knife, which was dripping with blood, standing over a corpse. A few moments later, the large crowd that Aimoto had once been part of dispersed, leaving him standing there.

He was stood behind the killer, and luckily for him there was another man who was still there. This man was in front of the killer. As the killer gave chase and the other man sprinted away, Aimoto began turning and picking up his pace. He needed to get away. But he got no more than a few metres before he suddenly stopped.

What am I doing? he had thought. I need to run!

But his conscious wouldn't let him. He knew that the killer that was giving chase would surely kill that innocent man. Aimoto broke out into a sprint in their direction. He was determined to save the man.  But he was already far behind and had no hope of catching up to them in time.

As he rapidly zoomed around a corner, he caught sight of the killer stabbing a woman in the chest. Her body went limp and crashed to the floor. Aimoto went as pale as a sheet and could only stand and watch in horror. He tried to stop himself, but fell powerless to his urge to throw up. He spewed vomit across the ground and felt light-headed. He wanted to pass out.

Finally, he worked up the courage to shakily raise his head. As he did he saw the man who he had set out to save being stabbed in the chest. As he dropped to the floor, Aimoto noticed a small group of people standing behind the man. Screams erupted throughout them, but they all seemed too petrified to move. The killer, if only for a second, looked fulfilled. He looked like he'd done what he set out to do. He almost seemed like he was about to retreat.

However, it was then that he let out a loud sigh and shouted:

"What the hell, why not have a bit more fun while I'm here?"

Then, he rushed relentlessly towards the crowd.

"No!" Aimoto shouted as he broke into a sprint.

He leaped forward and tackled the killer to the ground. He glanced to the blade. It reflected the sunlight into Aimoto's eyes and gleamed beautifully. Aimoto seized the opportunity to snatch the polished steel blade from the killer’s hands, trying to ignore the crimson blood slowly dripping from it. He shakily tossed it away and then continued to place all of his weight on the killer.

"Call the cops!" he shouted.

The crowd of people stood there silently, looking shocked. They were just standing there and staring, not bothering to hide their expressions of amazement.

"Now!"

***

Aimoto was able to hold the killer down until the police had arrived. Strangely, he hadn't really been putting up that much of a resistance. In fact, Aimoto could have sworn he heard the man mutter something about a successful soul and that he didn't need to kill anymore anyway. Aimoto couldn't make sense of any of it.

The police had contacted his high school about what had happened and Aimoto was told to take the day off. It seemed like a reasonable response, considering that whilst all this knife crime business was taking place, Aimoto's school was already well into second period. He had pushed through the door into his room and flung himself onto his bed. He let out an exasperated sigh and looked dejectedly at his hands. He knew he had saved several lives, but he couldn't shake the memories flashing rapidly through his mind of those who he couldn't save. Steeling his resolve, he swore to himself that, whilst he hoped nothing like that would ever happen again, he wouldn't allow things to play out the same way should something similar take place in the future.

He had felt so tired he had fallen straight asleep, despite the early hour. His vision blurred from him and he fell deep into his own subconscious thoughts.

And then...

He had awoken to this goddess in the inn room, claiming that he was a hero. It was safe to say that he was more than a little bewildered.

Aimoto pushed himself back even further against the wooden door behind him and attempted to steady his hand, now looking straight down his glimmering blade at the goddess in front of it. His short, spiky blonde hair stood on end. His arms weren't particularly muscular, but they looked strong. Strong enough to comfortably hold a large blade, meaning that his incessant shaking was likely due to fear. Rishtafar surmised this after glancing at him and began to offer a response to his ramblings.

"Well, you see. It's like I told you already. You have been summoned into another world, this world, Exstrephia, that's what this world is called by the way, to kill the evil, dreadful, meaning Devil King." She seemed overly dramatic as she said all this.

Aimoto lowered his guard a little.

"Okay so, what? What happens when I defeat this Devil King guy?"

"Oh, well that's simple." Rishtafar began to say cheerfully, "you will be immediately returned back to Japan. Unless of course you want to stay here. If I were you I'd opt to stay here. This world is pretty neat compared to your old one. There's magic and all that stuff. But I'm sure you already know most of what to expect here."

Aimoto looked even more confused than he had before. 

He gulped before saying, "Why do you think I would know about this world? I've only just came to the place."

Rishtafar stared for a second before laughing.

"Oh. I get it. I get it. You would have no idea what to expect, would you? Well, this world is much like those MMOs people in your world seem to love so much. You get it now?"

"MM-O?" Aimoto asked, perplexed.

Rishtafar put on an awkward smile.

"Yeah, MMOs. This world is, more or less, what you would expect an MMO world to be like."

"What's an MMO?" Aimoto asked.

"Huh?"

Rishtafar slumped down and looked depressed. Aimoto had a peculiar talent for reading people, and Rishtafar looked to him like she had just had a plan ruined. She seemed as though she was about to undertake a lot of work and she was not overly thrilled about it.

Was she really banking on me knowing about MMOs that much? Aimoto pondered.

Then Rishtafar spoke up in a defeated voice.

"Really? You don't know what an MMO is?"

"No"

"Massively Multiplayer Online games?"

"If that's what it stands for, then still no."

"Are you absolutely one hundred percent-"

"Look I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what a goddamn MMO is." Aimoto shouted, growing a bit infuriated.

"Why did I pick you again?"

Aimoto just stared quizzically at the goddess, having no idea what was going on.

"Hoo boy. Looks like I have my work cut out for me." she groaned in as cheerful as a voice as she could muster.