Chapter 1 - Fated Encounter

I can't remember. What time is it?

I don't know where I am, why is it dark?

I hear a faint voice, "S… a… m…!!" Sam? Was that my name?

And the voice, it sounded familiar. It was a girl's. Her words wrapped me in a blanket… It's coming back to me… Now I remember… What happened.

~~~

"C'mon Sam, hurry up!" Being yelled at to hurry up was VERY annoying when you're the only one carrying your weight.

"Well maybe if you carried some of them I wouldn't be so slow" I frustratingly answered back.

It's the 3rd March 2314. My name is Samuel Daemon and I am currently studying at Dragoon Middle School. The school is based in the Hero State, the state where the first dungeon appeared. I am 5'7'', with wavy, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. I'm a sprinter for my athletics club at my Middle School and keep in shape.

The Hero State is governed by the International Heroes Organisation, or IHO for short. The state comprises of 16 different sectors, and currently I live in Sector 3, the Heroes Sector, whereas the school is based in Sector 11. To go to school, I have to take a trip on the local bullet train to Sector 11, which takes approximately 10 minutes. The Hero State is quite more technologically advanced than anywhere else in the world, which is why people perceive it to as a futuristic paradise. However, people like me on the other hand find it quite boring to see the same sites every day, which is what happens when you've lived in the Hero State all your life.

"Hurry up Sam, and stop spacing out!" The girl shouted.

A few people in the crowd turned their heads to see what the commotion was, a few of them muttered something.

"Shh… keep it down will you!!" I whispered, "I'll hurry up! But I can't go any faster."

"Stop with the excuses already!" She pouted.

It had only just turned 6:00PM, but the hustling and bustling of the shopping sector, Sector 13, was the same as ever. We were at the heart of Sector 13, in a mall known as 'Thirteen 4 Life'. With rows upon rows of shops trying to sell you things you didn't need, and crowds of people shopping to their heart's content. Benches to take a rest on, water fountains for those who were thirsty, and makeshift food stalls for when you wanted a quick bite to eat. Me and my friend were at the mall looking for clothes, my friend more than me. As always I was stuck doing the grunt work, and it made me feel like a clown from the circus trying to carry the absurd amount of clothes and accessories my friend seemed to desperately need!

The girl making me juggle her shopping is my childhood friend, Mia Angelica. She comes from a long lineage of Heroes, known as the Archangel's. Her father and mine worked alongside each other in dungeons and against villains, which is why my family and hers is so close. Mia is a very cute girl, with long, silky brown hair, hazelnut eyes, and 5'6'' in height, light skinned with a curvy yet slender body, as well as... very voluptuous. She is quite athletic, enjoying taking part in all sorts of sports, but her favourite by far is basketball. Mia's three abilities is that of 'Pure Magic', powerful magic that originates from the first ever dungeon.

With jaw-dropping looks, unique abilities, perfect grades, a charming personality, she was the typical ideal girl. However, any mall we enter, she suddenly takes on a different personality. She becomes extremely excitable and authoritarian, buying anything she considers cute within a heartbeat, but she makes the person she's with hold them.

Her excuse is: "I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the items in the shops!".

If you drop anything that you were carrying for her, she'll start pouting and "unintentionally" uses one of her abilities, 'Angel's Authority', blasting energy beams from her Archangel Wings - which are multi-purpose wings she can activate. Once you've been hit, the ability comes into effect, which simply put, means you'll be under her control for the next 4 hours.

Originally, it was only 1 hour, but through intensive training she was able to extend the time to 4 hours. As well as that, she can control five people at once, whereas originally it was only two people who would be under her control. Unlike Mia, who inherited her ability from her father, I never inherited my father's and mother's ability or gained one at birth.

I still hold out hope that I can get one though, like the Spider Hero, who gained his abilities when a radioactive spider that escaped from dungeon 2J bit him.

"Can you please carry at least some of these bags, Mia!" I pleaded as I tried to balance the nine bags of clothes and accessories.

"But I'm already carrying one and it's REALLY heavy!" she complained.

Despite her athleticism, Mia didn't enjoy carrying more than she wants to. Whilst in 'Mall Mode' as I like to call it, she becomes care-free, almost lazy, buying a lot of products with her seemingly unlimited amount of money. At times like these, I wished her perfect personality would show itself, but it never does. I was deep in thought about how to convince Mia to hold at least one more bag, when I realised the solution was right in from of me.

"Why don't you use your ability 'Angelic Radiance' to get some of the bags to float!"

"Oh yeah, I really hadn't thought about doing that," she replied to me nonchalantly. "Okay then, let's give it a go. But if anything goes wrong, you're paying for a replacement, Sam!"

Angelic Radiance, Mia's 2nd ability that allows her to control the movement of all objects within a 15 meter radius. She can control any object and move them in any direction she desires with expert precision. However, she cannot control the movement of living creatures as she doesn't have the skills to do that yet. She also must partially divert her attention to all the objects she is controlling, which have been the root cause of many unfortunate accidents.

"Now be extremely careful!" If she were to drop one of the bags, I wouldn't have any money left to spend and that was not something I was looking forward to.

Suddenly, there was an explosion to my right, then another, and then three consecutively.

The sudden explosions caused Mia to suddenly lose her concentration, and all seven bags that were floating lost their levitation and began their descent, but my reflexes were fast enough to catch all of them. "Nice one!" she said, smiling at me sweetly.

As I was putting the bags safely on the floor, I wondered what was going on.

Sector 13 was prone to wild Goblin Raids, where they would try to plunder the local shops, but this was different.

A Goblin Raid wouldn't be able to cause the explosions I was hearing, and there should be sirens blaring with an announcer telling us that there was a Goblin Raid in progress beforehand. Had something gone wrong with the communications?

A few people started screaming, a few children began to cry, but most began entering and filing into the shops, which was protocol. A few heroes that had been patrolling the area helped some of the elderly and disabled into the shops as well.

Unexpectedly, the usual whine of the speakers interrupted by train of thought.

"Finally!" I thought to myself.

"Everyone please evacuate the area, a level 50 Demon King has escaped from dungeon 13A and has been sighted in Sector 13. I repeat, please evacuate the area!"

I was frozen in place, it was as if I had glue on my feet. A level 50 Demon King… from dungeon 13A… was here... in this mall?

"Sam, I think we need to go."

BOOM! Haven't I read about Demon Kings.

"SAM!"

SMASH! Yeah. There was an article about it I read a few years ago.

"Please this is dangerous!" Mia tugged at me furiously, but to no avail.

CRASH! It said that Demon Kings only appear once a century.

"This isn't the time to space out!"

BANG! Why did it appear now? Why was it here?

"Sam, I'm begging you to snap out of it!!"

KAPOW! Wasn't dungeon 13A infamous for having zero successful attempts at getting past the 99th floor. With all these thoughts going through my head all at once, I hadn't realised that Mia had been calling to me this entire time to run away.

I heard a faint scream, and the futuristic metal shutters on all the stores hitting the marble floor, clicking into place as the heroes around me began to panic. They fumbled with their radios as they tried to call for backup, but it seemed the monster's immense magic power had leaked out, messing with the hero's signal. The moment they realised that backup wasn't coming, they immediately began running in the opposite direction from the monster, yelling at me and Mia to do the same.

That's when I saw it. I surmised it was roughly 120 meters away.

The monster looked like he was 10 feet tall.

It was wearing some sort of armour, which seemed to slow it down significantly.

There were wings coming out of its back as well. The wings looked like they were on fire, but it was an odd colour. There was a saying that the black flames of hell would only flicker in the face of adversity, as if it were about to go out of control.

The black flames began to flicker.

I could also see seven orbs of dark magic surrounding the monster, shooting black pellets at their unseen pursuers.

On top of that, it was holding a sword, but it was more like a bigger version of a katana, with the front edge being incredibly sharp, whereas the back edge was jagged. It had a unique design engraved onto its metal that I'd never seen before, and every time it hacked at the air, a black slash would follow.

It had a mask on, a blue demon mask with eyes that emitted no emotion. It had horns coming out of the top of the mask's head, as well as horn-like teeth sticking out of the mask's mouth. It was different shades of blue for different parts of the mask and very detailed, as if it were a piece of art.

At the centre of the mask's forehead, there was a blue stone, and, although it was quite dim, I noticed a faint glow from the stone.

The pursuers appeared, but they didn't look like the usual heroes, who wore a branded costume so you could immediately tell who they were. Instead, they looked like they were the Men in Black. Their white shirts, black suits, black trousers, black ties and black glasses, it was easy to mistake them as agents of the US government, but the government didn't deal with monsters, that was the Hero's job after all.

So who were they? Everyone who had been shopping already barricaded themselves inside the stores around us, it was just me and Mia who hadn't got out yet.

The Demon King had halved the distance and was now only 60 meters away.

Immediately, I snapped back to reality and realised the gravity of the situation we were in. "Sam, what are we gonna do?!" I could hear the panic in her voice.

I was a natural at thinking on my feet, but Mia had never been one to take charge because of her personality, which is why she was relying on me, but because I'd been absent-minded, we lost our chance to escape. My wandering mind had put me and Mia in an undesirable situation.

Quickly, I observed our surroundings. Running the other way was out of the question as the gap had been closed very quickly. However, there was also the option of using the emergency exits. I pointed at the exit as I said "Quickly!" to Mia, but as I attempted to open the door, I realised that the automatic locking system had been put in place. We could attempt to blast it with magic, except it wouldn't do us any good because they were enchanted doors, and were now similar to that of an impenetrable wall. There was a chance we could get away using Mia's Archangel Wings to fly us out.

"Okay Mia, I got a plan. We need to…" But my sentence was cut short when a huge object collided with me, and I was suddenly enveloped in a black smoke.

As I had been thinking up a plan, the 'Men in Black' had pulled out a one-of-a-kind artefact, which could be found in a secret Side Quest in dungeon 6Q. You'd have have to manoeuvre through traps and solve riddles to get to the end where you'd find the item known as the 'World Gauntlet'. Originally used by a villain formerly known as the Purple Titan to erase half of humanity, it had been hidden in dungeon 6Q by a group of heroes under 300 years ago and hadn't been seen since.

The story of the gauntlet was written down into history and the first clue was said to have been written down in the scripture that described the tale of the group of Heroes called the 'Revengers'. Groups of online cryptographers attempted to solve the first clue, but the endeavour was all in vain.

The World Gauntlet needed six Key Stones to unlock its full potential, which were scattered through dungeons across the world, but the gauntlet currently only had 2 stones, the 'Power Stone' and the 'Mind Stone'.

As the 'Men in Black' pulled out the World Gauntlet, they had used the power stone to send out a blast of magic at the Demon King which had knocked it flying, whilst the person who had used the Gauntlet started glowing purple and collapsed.

The Demon King had been sent flying and had rammed straight into me.

Then a abnormal event occurred. I resonated with the Demon King. The blue stone on his mask began to glow a blinding deep sea blue. The resonation caused a thick, black smoke that enveloped me. I was overcome with this strange familiar feeling, what was it?

The smoke disappeared.

I can't remember. What time is it?

I don't know where I am, why is it dark?

I hear a faint voice, "S… a… m…!!" Sam? Was that my name?

And the voice, it sounded familiar. It was a girl's. Her words wrapped me in a blanket… It's coming back to me… Now I remember… What happened.