(33.1) Welcome to Deika -

Huff, huff, huff.

Loud footsteps skid along the wet cobblestone having long since abandoned the concept of stealth.

"Why aren't any of my skills working? Is this some sort of sick joke, universe? After you make me trash among trash in that shitty world, you give me a second chance only to spit on me? Huh?" The youth curses under his breath. He pauses for a moment, reclining his back against a brick wall.

He clenches his fist, trying to will mana to bend to his control but rather than surging with power, he merely looks constipated and strange staring at his balled up fists.

"After I decided to live for myself with my unlimited, cheat power, what did I do wrong!? Don't I deserve something for all the shit I had to endure?"

His eyes flick to his status, opening the skill menu with urgency.

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Inori Toya Title: One-Winged Descender

[Gifts: Limitless Potential, Extreme Arts, Enslave]

[SKILLS AND MAGIC]:

List too expansive, compiling to most used SKILLS and MAGIC

[Skill Plunder Lv. 8, Absolute Submission Lv. 8, Archery Lv. 5, Blank Shot Lv. 5, CQC Lv. 5, Crafting Lv. 5, Dagger Arts Lv. 7, Dancing Lv. 10, Disarming Lv. 8, Double Experience Lv. NULL, Halved Required Experience Lv. NULL, Quadruple Skill Experience Lv. NULL, Dual-Wielding Lv. 7, Elemental Magic Lv. 6, Enamouring Eye Lv. NULL, Enhanced Bloodlust Lv. 6, Extreme Luck Lv. 7, False Self Lv. 5, Forging Lv. 6, Homemaking Lv. 6, Kingly Aura Lv. 7, Life Detection Lv. 8, Life Endowment Lv. 3, Mana Manipulation Lv. 9, Mana Sense Lv. 9, Massage Techniques Lv. 5, Mental Submission Lv. 9, Overpowering Will Lv. 2, Pain Resistance Lv. 8, Attribute Resistance Lv. 8, Mind Resistance Lv. 8, Parallel Thought Lv. 8 Quadruple Thought Lv. 7, Phantom Sense Lv. 5, Photographic Memory Lv. NULL, Quick Cast Lv. 8, Chain Cast Lv. 7, Effortless Cast Lv. 7, Spell Storage Lv. NULL, Spell Editing Lv. 5, Unique Spell Creation Lv. 4, Quick Draw Lv. 8, Shield Techniques Lv. 4, Singing Lv. 8, Sleight of Hand Lv. 8, Spearmanship Lv. 7, Stealth Lv. 7, Swordsmanship Lv. 9, Swindling Lv. 7, Therapeutic Reform Lv. 10, Thieving Lv. 8, Throwing Lv. 7, Trickery Lv. 6, True Shadow Magic Lv. 5, Unbending Stance Lv. 6, Unparalleled Prowess Lv. 2, Vampiric Drain Lv. 5, Vampiric Sight Lv. 6, Angel Aura Lv. NULL, Demonic Presence Lv. NULL, Wealth Forger Lv. 5]

More: ⟲ 

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Even looking at the expansive list and manually trying to activate anything that way, regardless of their Active or Passive qualities, nothing responds.

"There you are~" A singsong voice jeers from nearby.

A second later, a hole burns itself into the wall a hair's breadth from his waist from a bolt of fire magic.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Inori takes off in a sprint. He rounds corners and doubles back often, tossing and throwing whatever he can to slow his pursuers down at least a little within these tight backstreets.

In his panic, Inori ends up running off the ledge of an unfenced street and falls down a level of the multilayered underground district into a pile of garbage tossed into a dead end.

"AHH!"

In his misfortune, a broken dagger foci that was irresponsibly tossed into this back alley garbage goes through his right thigh.

Bright red blood pools quickly from the injury and appears ominous under the faint firelight that flickers from the streetlights at the end of the alley and the street above.

"Ahh! Ahhh-hahaha!!~" The laughter reveals itself to belong to a man that appears at the edge of the alley Inori fell into, blocking the only exit. "How screams like that do tickle me."

"I'm just trying to live my life! What did I ever do to you?" Inori grips the bloodsoaked blade and feels mana start to surge back into his body. "Look, just let me go. I haven't done anything wrong…"

Shadows stretch out from underneath the garbage and slink along the edge of the alley to the backlit man.

"Oh oh oh, is that right?" He walks closer to Inori, nodding in contemplation. Then he flicks the tip of his circlet and chuckles to himself like he was just told something obvious and felt embarrassed by it. "You make a convincing point, eh? How dare I treat such a special guy like a beast to be hunted. Silly me."

"You fell for it, bastard!" Inori shouts.

He presses on the dagger and the swirling shadows stab outward and…

Fwwssh

They dissipate into nothing before reaching the man.

"My- my magic? Again?" Inori backtracks from his attempted lunge and sinks deeper into the garbage pile. "How?"

"C'mon. Did you think the Old Guard wasn't a threat just because we hadn't come after you, kid?" The Old Guard man gloats.

In his hand he tauntingly shakes a small, faintly glowing lightning bolt-shaped octahedron at Inori. "This is a Reality Equaliser. Bane to your – and every otherworlder's – filthy existence. No matter how… untouchable you think you are now, this breaks the false reality you've taken and sets you back to the weak, ugly, magicless abomination you truly are."

"Fake? Filthy?" Inori tries to rise from the garbage pile but slips on something wet and falls again. "What gives you the right to take away my second chance at life? To live the way I want to for once?! It's not fake!"

The Old Guard laughs loudly. He stops at the edge of the garbage pile and sneers. "Of course~. Go on then, lord over us. We're fake, fictional beings, NPCs, aren't we? That's what you otherworlders tell yourselves so that you can do whatever you want, isn't it? Toys for your amusement!"

A sharp smack echoes down the alley and Inori's head snaps back from the sudden kick the Old Guard gives him.

"Hey! Let me go this instant!" A voice chimes just beyond the alley. "I said unhand me!"

Inori struggles to open his eyes, vigour renewed in his body at hearing the voice.

"Hmm? When you call the Storm…"

Two more Old Guard, these ones wearing their full armour and helm have a Sith girl with white fur coating her fluffy tail, arms, and legs clasped between them struggling to get away.

However, her struggle is futile since the faceless Old Guard let go of her once they reach the garbage pile.

"...A…kari..?"

"Finally! What in the stars is going on? Where am I? And what am I wearing??" The sith grasps at her sparse outfit and the exceedingly short skirt not designed for beast type humans. Her tail all but lifts it up to expose her backside. "What kind of abductors handle a noble so inelegantly, hmm?"

"No! Akari! Get away! These guys are bad!" Inori desperately tries to get out of the garbage. "Run, Akari! I'll protect you!"

"Akari this, Akari that, who is speaking to whom? I am Jasmine Ve-" Jasmine's feline ears perk and her nose scrunches to find the speaker. Her face contorts first in disgust then in recognition before landing on anger.

"You! I remember you." Jasmine bares her teeth and claws as she approaches. "You're the one that saved my family's land from the monster wave. I was as grateful to you as anyone else but then your eyes were…" She clasps her head, her vision blurring as she is unable to recall details.

"Peeking, barging into my bath, touching me, making me wear such clothes…" Anger flashes again and she grabs Inori by the collar. "Speak! What did you do to me!?"

"But your arranged marriage… I saved you from it." Inori grabs Jasmine's wrists. "Akari, you told me you didn't want it. That you wanted to run away and that you'd come with me with a new name for a new life. Didn't you?!?"

"You-" Her eyes widen as she remembers something else. "What did you do to my family!!"

"Akari, please. I know you can hear me in there. Fight it! I promise I'll protect you, but you need to let me." He squeezes her wrists tighter and raises his voice, throwing saliva everywhere as he shouts.

"Akari! Fight it! This isn't you at all. Remember our promise?? Break free from this!"

"Oh you delusional little escapist!" The Old Guard man laughs again, louder now. "For what reason do you think you have the right to make the people of this world, MY world, play along with your desires? Huh?"

He tosses a dagger to Jasmine who reflexively catches it.

"Lady Jasmine, is it? This monster is an otherworlder and he used [Mind Control] magic on you. Presently you are in Deika City on Rou."

"The divided continent, Rou? I'm on the other side of the planet??"

"Don't you want to make him pay for doing such improper things to you? For your family?"

"Don't listen to him, Akari!"

Before anything else happens, Inori's head is sliced from his body. Jasmine's jaw drops, the anger fading completely upon seeing the otherworlder boy's execution a hand's distance from her.