(POV narrator) (It is recommended to read this in dark mode)
On a clear night with no clouds in the sky, the moon radiates its subtle light on the abandoned fortress lost to the forest below. All without color, monochromatic, and dull. In this dullness, two men with swords on their side stand in front of a wooden door, their eyes are tinted with a hint of color that wants to escape, but can’t. One is a younger looking man holding a lantern, a new recruit who at a first glance has a face of nervousness but more insightful individuals would realize is the look of barely-contained rage. The other man was older, is of a higher rank, based on his uniform, and has a look of focus.
The recruit looks to his more experienced coworker and asks, “Why don’t we just kill him? It would be much easier to get rid of that devil now.”
The older man replies while still focused upon the door, “As much as I want to slit his throat and display his body for all to see, we have orders to interrogate him. After all, he is not working alone.”
“But a monster without a head is dead, he is the leader after all?”(young interrogator)
“Then they will make him a messiah for their cause and that will only motivate them to bring hell on Avral; Plus, there is doubt that he is actually the leader of that group, for he is too immature to be one.”(old interrogator)
“Yea but…”(young interrogator)
The two men continue to face the wooden door of that devil as if an invisible barrier is preventing them to enter the room, fear and hatred is all over the young interrogator face.
“But why would someone ever fight against mankind and the hero, let alo-” (young interrogator)
A voice abruptly intercepts his question, a voice that was not from the older interrogator, but from the devil inside the room.
“Cause your ‘mankind’ are a bunch of dicks.”(devil?)
The young interrogator recoil in surprise “The fu- how can.”
“Unfortunately, building is not old and decrepit, the door more so, let us go in before he talks even more then he rightfully should,”(old interrogator)
The two men walk inside the cell that the so called “devil” was in. The “devil” in front of them is a man tied to a chair in the middle of the empty room, the only source of light was the lantern the interrogator had and the moonlight that flowed from a small window in the room, the man is bloodied but some of his wounds are recovering as it seems that they are only now doing the interrogation. The man has black hair with purple tip, wearing leather armor, regular armor that anyone can steal from an armory and also wearing glasses that on the outside makes him look like a nerd. But the most striking thing about him was that unlike everything in his surroundings, he was in color.
“You know it’s very rude to call your o so honored guest a devil and would it fucking kill you to have more comfortable rope, as a BDSM enjoyer this is a 2/10 at best.”(prisoner)
“...Can I please punch him in the face.”(young interrogator)
“I would not advise that.” (old interrogator)
“Cause he knows that even bounded I can beat you ass cause your a little bitch”
“Why you little” as the young interrogator dash forward to hit the prisoner in the face as he promised, something unexpected happens. The chair suddenly moved to the right, as if a ghost moved it, causing the recruit to miss his punch. As he tries to stop before he runs into the wall his right foot gets caught on something that wasn't there before causing him to trip and bumping his head into the wall with a auditable thud.
“Aaahh fuck.”(young interrogator)
The prisoner let out a chuckle and said “oooo that looks like it hurts, I would give you a hand if you would untie this rope for me.”
As the recruit get up and dusted himself, looking surprisingly unharmed for running head first into the wall, the older man let out a sigh and said “if you would let me finish, the reason we aren't doing as we please to him is because he doesn't have an A.M.R, look around with mana in your eyes.”
"a fellow enjoyer BDSM enjoyer too I see."
As the old interrogator ignores the inappropriate comment, the young man concentrates some of his mana into his eyes he sees that the supposedly empty room is filled with slightly purple glowing string made of dark magic
“Took you long enough, I thought someone who hates me with a passion would know my M.O.”
“Why doesn't he have an A.M.R on him."(young interrogator)
The older interrogator interrupted him “because he was able to pick the locks of the A.M.R’s that we had so this is the best way to contain him, without his daggers, all his dark strings can do is mildly annoy us, and boy, I have tolerated your brashness because I empathize with your hatred but if you keep doing this I will have to report you to the authorities, do you understand you understand”
He looked at his superior and took a deep breath and responded“... yes sir.”
“Good, now we can get back on the purpose of this interrogation” the old interrogator walks in front of the prisoner and pulls some paper from his uniform and says “first name: andraya, last name: none, age: 19, element: darkness.” (old interrogator)
“How fitting.”(young interrogator)
The old man ignored he said and asked “are all of of what I said true”
“No my first name is Bob, I’m 69, and I’m the avatar, of course all of them are true.” despite Andraya being in what many people would describe as a bad situation, he is being very calm and even a bit annoyed.
“I would recommend that you cooperate with us. Just a cursory glance on your crimes you have done, the most minimum that you can receive is life in prison.”(old interrogator)
“If I have done so much that the minimum is life in prison, then how much information would I have to give you to even consider a lesser sentence.”
“Well you can give us information about your resistance, especially those 3 seem to always accompany you.”(old interrogator)
“And what kind of ‘information’ would I give you that you guys already know.”
“For one, we would like to know what kind of magic you used brainwash them.”(old interrogator)
Andraya was baffled at his comment and replied “I’m sorry, do you believe that I brainwashed them into rebelling, if I had that power I would have taken over the who fucking kingdom by now.”
“Yes it is quite baffling to think about it but you convinced the daughter of the Ashforge family, a holy priestess, and a knight that has been with the army since her childhood to join your side, especially in such a short time frame.” (old interrogator)
“Not really, it was actually very easy to, wait let me just...” andraya proceeded to rotate his chair 90 degrees so that his hands are in view and dose a quote on quote movement with his hands and says “'convince them' to join me.”
“Permission to speak.”(young interrogator)
“granted.”(old interrogator)
“He is not taking this seriously and is just trying to mess with us. So anything he said might as well be baseless rumors.”(young interrogator)
“That may be true but this is our job, also so why did you do that…unnecessary movement when I said convinced.”
Andraya turned the chair around and said “Cause all I did was help them out to realize that their lives were hollow. Hell, I even tried to convinced them to NOT join me but they still stuck by my side.”
“Permission to speak.”(young interrogator)
“granted.”(old interrogator)
“What the hell do you mean ‘hollow’, they were in positions that many people would have dreamed to have and yet they threw it all away just cause they were hollow.”(young interrogator)
“Embella realized her family are a bunch of egotistical stuck up assholes, Boltra was a fucking child soldier and spend most of her life protecting a kingdom that did not care for her and Hurrstia… well she was just bored and wanted to fight stuff.”
“Y-your joking right.”(young interrogator)
“Yea compared the Embella and Boltra, Hurrstia’s reason is not the mo-”
The young interrogator interrupts him and angrily yells “You and your insane girlfriends are threatening all of humanity and letting the demon king destroy the kingdom just for such selfish reasons!”
“First off, did you not hear any of the reasons that I just said, second off, we have defeated some of the demons but nobody ever knows since that information is hidden to the general public and lastly none of them are my type.”
“What that’s just anoth-”(young interrogator)
“boy!”(old interrogator)
“But are you-”(young interrogator)
“We are here to get as much information as we can, even if most of what he said are falsehoods if there some truth in his words then we did our job, got it!”(old interrogator)
“...yes sir.”(young interrogator)
“Good, now these allies of yours, since you constantly fight alongside them multiple times, you would know their weaknesses. If you were to tell us the-”(old interrogator)
“No”
“...You do understand what you have done right, robbery, terrorism, conspiracy, you even caused the destruction of Saintisin. I thought bringing a former resident whose family and friends died there would make you realize what you have done and why you have no other choice except to cooperate.”(old interrogator)
Andraya who throughout the entire conversation was not taking this serious, now had a face of sorrow. “You will probably not believe me but if we knew that bomb was there, we wouldn't have it the fuse”
When the young interrogator was confused as to what Andraya said, the old interrogator said “Even when you are facing the victim you still make weird statements from your world, you are quite despicable. And according to this report this is not even the worst crime you…” as he looked to the last page his face, which throughout this entire interrogation was very blank and composed, turned to a face of confusion. “That’s … how drunk were they when they wrote this” he muttered
“Let me guess it had something to do with ‘The Apple’ am I correct”
The old interrogator was surprised that he knew what was on the last page, but before he thought any deeper he followed the advice of that voice and continued his questioning “That’s beside the point, despite all that you have done, if you cooperate with us we lessen the sentence and even… make it so you don’t face any punishment.”
The young interrogator surprised and for a lack of a better word pissed yelled “WHAT, after all he had done, the many people he has harmed and killed the kingdom is not seriously thinking of-”
“The one who made the request was the hero”(old interrogator)
“What… why” (young interrogator)
“Ha, why is he still trying to convince me to join you guys, if he wanted me so badly all he had to do is to bring me some flowers and chocolate. But no even with such a tempting proposition I must decline”
“... I’m surprised that you have so much care and trust for your friends, but we are in the middle of nowhere, we made sure they couldn’t follow us so we are the only ones who can change your fate, so I will ask you this one more time, all you have to do is sell out your companions, people who are unstable at the very least, friendship that is of pure convenience, and you can have a chance to walk free and even find a way back to your precious home that you used to talk all about.”(old interrogator)
After he said that, Andraya closed his eyes, seeming to think about his choses, then opened his eyes and said “I said no, not because I expect them to break me out, but because they already have it hard enough by walking beside me and I don’t want to burden them more. Although they are at time unpleasant, annoying, and a bit crazy, there my first real friends and even though I don’t know much about friends, I know that they are-”
“Prison…”
“SHIT!”
Before Andraya could finish his monologue, the voice of a woman interrupted him, which for whatever reason made him scared and, using his dark strings, pulled himself and the chair as high up as it could go. Before the 2 interrogators could react to the voice, the woman finished her sentence, or in this case incantation
“Breaker!”
The woman unleashes a small, condensed red explosion that absolutely decimates the wall. While the old interrogator is able to resist the explosion and not be blown back, the young interrogator wasn’t so lucky and pushed to the wall, dropping his lantern to the ground shattering it. He is still conscious but visibly injured.
As the smoke cleared from the explosion, the moonlight came through the new hole in the wall and revealed 3 women from outside. The one in the middle has bright red hair that freely flows down her side and is wearing weird leather armor that looks like patchwork and on her side holsters a strange looking weapon. The woman on the right has bright yellow hair that’s tied up in a ponytail and seems to be wearing some sort of light metal armor and has what looks like 2 rapiers on her side. And the woman in the left has green hair and was wearing what could only be described as a casual priestess outfit but even that is questionable as it was a lot more red and torn the it would reasonably be, without anything that could be described as a weapon around her
The woman with a smirk on her face says “And after all the time we fought side by side you still call us shit”
Still in the air but rotating to face her, he responds “well Embella, if y'all stopped interruption my monologues that I spend so much time on then my opinion an y’all might be a little better”
The old interrogator quickly regaining his composure yells out “Crap, boy we need to-” before he could finish his sentence and yellow haired woman begins to be surrounded in electricity and in a blink of an eye is next to the old interrogator, before he could pull his sword off his sheathe the woman hit him with the handle of her rapier in the side of his head knocking him unconscious.
“Ow what the.. BOSS how da-” and before he could finish his sentence the green haired woman ran towards his prone body and somewhat brutally kicked the man in the head, also knocking him unconscious.
The yellow hair woman looked at the brutal way the green hair woman used to knock the young interrogator and said “I thought you said you would be more delicate when handling them”
“Yea what Boltra said, I think you have him a concussion Hurrstia”
Hurrstia simply looked at the dude she kicked and simply responded with a blank face “don’t worry he is fine… probably”
“Probably!”
“He had surrounded himself with mana in response to the explosion, so the blow wouldn’t be enough to kill him outright unless he was really weak”
“So he isn’t dead that’s neat… soooo can someone untie me”
“We will.”
“Great cause god these rope are itchy as-”
“After you tell us why you still feel guilty for our decision,”
“God damn it”
Boltra quietly remarks “Today really is not your day is it”
“Why are you bring it up right now of all times”
“Because knowing out luck we will be in multiple clashes and other trials that we will forget this like all the other occasions”
“I do agree with andraya, guards are probably on there way from that reckless explosion so we need to hurry up, get his things, and get out”
With a puff, Embella reluctantly said “... fine but I will not forget this.”
“Probably will”
With a small smile he responds “Thank god, Boltra you really are the best”
As she gets a dagger go cut up the rope with a bit of a smirk “Just don’t forget on paying me for losing the bet”
Still having the smile “You really are a piece of shit”
“Wait, I have a better idea.” and she proceeded to grab the chair and casually picks the chair with Andraya and put her on her back.
“Aaa wait, your not think of-”
“Yes”
“Son of a-”
Meanwhile outside of the room 3 guards are rushing to investigate the explosion sound
“You don’t think that has escaped, right?”(guard 1)
“Who else is in this decrepit building he’s the only prisoner here, it has to be them breaking their leader out”(guard 2)
“But still do we even stand a chance, even the 7 myths have trouble fighting them”(guard 3)
“At the very least we need to delete them, and we are getting close”
As they begin to hear voices from the room they know that they are getting close and prepared themselves for anything that was thrown at them. They turn the corner and the first thing they saw was a man in a chair being thrown by their teammate.
Turns out, they aren't prepared for a whole ass person to be thrown at them.
“BBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTCCCHH!”
All 3 of them try to get out of the way and 2 succeed, the one that failed got hit square in the body by the flying Andraya. He tried to block it with his mana but still hit him so hard that the chair instantly broke and he fell unconscious. Surprisingly Andraya isn’t as hurt as one would expect.
“Ow, was that even…” as he looks around he sees 2 guards close by who are recoiling from the shock of a there prisoner, who was thrown at them, is now defenseless.
“GET HIM!”(guard 2)
Guard 1 raises her spear and thrust at a prone Andraya. Luckily, the guard was slow on the draw and Adraya is able to get up causing the thrust to miss, and before guard 2 swings his mace, he conjure a purple sting and one end of the string moves towards the unconscious guards sword and with a flick of his finger the sword is lifted in the air and flyers towards guard 2. Guard 2 reflexively blocked the sword but he grabs the sword mid air and swings the sword to an opening on his armor. In pain he tries to swing the mace but Andraya sidesteps the attack and headbutts the guard causing him to fall unconscious.
The guard sees this and tries to attack him from behind but Boltra puts a hand on her shoulder and says “Can you please just step aside and pretend to be knocked out cause you are outmatched and I don’t want to-” before she could finish her sentence, the guard responds “Like I would be seduced by a monster like you” and tries to elbow her but before she could do that Boltra sighed and spoke “shocking selfishness”
As she spoke the incarnation and the guard was zapped with her yellow lightning and fell to the ground
“You ain't my type and wasn't flirting with you”
While Andraya seemed to send his string and seemed to be stitching the cut “Well, the rumors of you are quite nasty and people will be people, even you were like that once. But I got to say that was some really satisfying instant karma, especially if you were to take some of their gold”
She smiles a little and lower to do some light robbery.“I suppose your right, does not lower what you owe me thought.”
"God damn it."
Hurrstia and Embella go to where they are and Embella gives a light chuckle “I keep on forgetting how ear-splitting you can be from time to time, I am surprised how unscathed you are.”
“Luckily, the chair cushions the impact. How the hell did that work so well” he looked at Hurrstia “I’m not even mad that was awesome, if a bit dizzying.”
She simply shrugged ,while going to guard that was sliced and holding her hand to the cut trying to heal the wound, and responded “Just felt like it.”
“...How the hell are we still alive?”
“A question I ponder myself, sunrise to sunset.”
“Done, don’t know why he was reacting to such a small cut.”
Andraya looks at his hand and reveals his string for a bit “Anyways we need to keep going, I know where my stuff is.”
“Lead the way.”
As they went through the building it was relatively empty, if a bit too empty but they were in a rush so they hurried. Once they found the room where they were keeping Andraya stuff, he opened the door only to find 3 people in there.
“Shit, he’s here already get him”(Guard 1)
He back away a little but and said “Fuck, princess”
“On it” and she grabbed onto the object on her side pulled out what looked to be a primitive looking gun and she aimed towards the ground of the doorway and pulled the trigger. With a bang the projectile hit the ground and there the bullet hit a wall of fire appeared and blocked the guards from chasing them.
“Crap, the fire is too hot.”(Guard 2)
“Darn, you put the fire out”(Guard 1)
“On it.”(Guard 3)
“That should prevent them from chasing us”
As they were distracted with the flames and putting them out, Andraya revealed the string that were attached to his weapons and pulled them and threw the fire, 10 daggers and holsters crossed the flames and began to float around andraya.
“Alright now we can go.”
They all began rushing towards the exit of the building with still no enemies in sight.
“If we keep our luck we will exit this area with stressless, this was easy”
“God damn it.”
“Fuck.”
“YES!”
“What, did I spoke something?”
“Why did you jinx us”
"starvingbeast" As she speaks the incantation and focuses green energy to her hand and a wind begins to spin in the palm and slowly forms into weapons, a hammer on her left and a small sickle on her right. "I was disappointed with the lack of combat but now I am fired out.”
“Why do you always do this?”
“Please, that is all just superstitious nonsense, there's no way such a comment will meet our doom.”
As they cross the exit, they see dozens of guards waiting for them with weapons ready, and Andraya and Boltra look at their bad luck charm.
“...Just an unfortunate coincidence.”
As the guards and the escapees look at each other, waiting to see what each one does, A single individual walks out from the guards side. This man is in fancy looking armor and wielding an ornate sword but even without those anyone could see that he has a special aura around him that screams ‘he is a threat’ and the man begins to speak with a soft yet intimidating tone.
“The offer still stands, we don’t have to fight and no one can get hurt”
With a smirk “You already know my answer, plus do you even have permission to attack us”
“10 seconds”
The smirk that Andraya had instantly dropped and all of his allies got ready to fight positions. Beads of sweat could be seen on all of their faces, But no signs of backing down
“Very well, but can you at least help me understand why you wish to plant the seed of sin in this sinless world”
After some thinking, Andraya responded “Because it’s a sinless world of pain.” When he finishes his response the man gets ready for battle and says.
“You really are like him.”
This story is not the beginning, it’s in the middle and many events have happened to set up the events that have just unfolded, in order to get the full view of all of this, we must see the beginning of this story of 4 people who have eaten 'The Apple' and search to finding themselves.
