Forever Chained

"Uh, what?", Luke asked in evident shock.

"Who are you talking to?", Renlin asked in confusion.

"Can you see me?", Luke asked, after a second.

The princess hesitated for a moment, her face forming a deep frown as she looked at Luke.

"I can, but I don't know why. You're here, but you're not. I can't tell where you are, or… when?", the words started fading suddenly as the world began to fade in Lukes's mind.

Luke took a startled step back, finding himself once again standing in front of the old broken picture frame.

'What the hell was that', he said in surprise.

"Bloodline ability discovered", the notification appeared in his head, adding to his wonder.

"All seeing eyes: Your Omniscience [Error! System Break!] transcends time. [Error! Error! Error!]"

Luke's mind was racing at the message, because if it was true then that really meant he had just had a vision of the past. Just the idea of seeing through time was enough to make his head spin, it was akin to time travel. Especially if he could interact with others, that meant he might even be able to ask questions on how he could get home.

The whole event was surreal, and he couldn't help but wonder if something similar would happen. Curious he looked back at the old painting of the frame, then he reached his hands out to touch it again. This time there was no change in the room, no sudden appearance of anyone, nor was the heat he had previously felt in the frame still present.

Grunting, Luke stared at the frame for a second with a hint of greed, before finally deciding he would have to leave it behind. Carrying it was of no use, and there was always a chance he would drop it at some point and give away his position. Still, the idea of returning home with real gold too sell was more than a little tempting.

With a bit of reluctance, Luke turned away from the painting to the hallway he had seen the princess come from in his vision. Unlike the first door which was ajar but whole, this door looked as if it had been shattered from the outside in. Old splinters of rot lay on the ground in front of the dark passageway, while larger bits of wood clung to the hinges stubbornly.

'That's not a bad sign at all', Luke mused.

Despite the eeriness of the door, Luke had already decided he was going to go that way. His reasoning was simple enough, in the hallway there were stairs leading upwards. Which he took as a good sign as he had read most medieval dungeons were kept underground. Although there was another reason for his taking the same passageway as the princess, and that was curiosity. Luke didn't know what was going on, but he felt a burning desire to explore, a curiosity that had eluded him since he was a kid.

'I'm stuck In this world, I may as well know where I'm stuck and… maybe even why', Luke thought with a grim smile.

With that thought he moved into the dark hallway and began to ascend the stairs.

The stairs started off very narrow, just wide enough for one person to walk comfortably. Yet as Luke ascended the stairwell widened quite a bit until it reached a platform at the very top, on which rested a heavy set of double wooden doors.

It was strange to Luke that the place he was in, which he assumed now to be a castle of some sort would have such a long stairwell, that only led to a prison. It made him wonder just how much he had missed out on seeing by taking a left. In fact, part of him even felt dissatisfied with having missed out on the exploration. Luke knew that part of him was being stupid, he needed to be focused on surviving his situation rather than exploring a castle full of monsters.

Still, it was testament to his life how well he had taken this otherworldly encounter so far. Already in the course of a couple of hours he had experienced many things he had never dreamed of seeing in his own world. Yet here, those things seemed commonplace, even if the things in question were grey skinned zombie monsters.

Strange as it sounded to him, part of him had to acknowledge a level of excitement that came with this whole situation. Sure, he was scared, but that was also a large part of why this place seemed so exciting.

In his world he had been living in a constant routine of waking up, working, working again, and then going home to go to sleep. The only person who might have cared about him was his uncle, and Luke wasn't even sure that was the case. In a way not much had changed between his circumstances in his previous world and this one. In the end, Luke was alone and trying to survive the best he could, at least here in this world there was a simplicity to that survival. At there was a sense of wonder, and excitement that came with the survival in this world.

'I must be losing my mind', Luke thought with a wry smile.

Continuing forward, he approached the double doors while trying to keep the thudding of his gym shoes on stone to a minimum. When he reached the old doors, he stopped just in front of them and used his omniscience to scan as much as he could of the room they led too.

It appeared to lead to another hallway, this one wider than the prison's, being just a bit wider than the top of the stairs.

Carefully, Luke began to push the doors open, doing so slowly to avoid the creaking of hinges. Of course, the six metal hinges still scraped against each other causing a nasty grinding noise, but not one that was overly loud. The wood was mostly rotted, but the door were still as heavy as ever leading Luke to stop pushing once an opening just large enough for him to fit through appeared.

Moving into the hallway, he found that it was bare of any broken furniture, unlike the last room. Luke supposed that made sense, who decorated the path leading into a prison. That also served to show Luke how bizarre the paintings Renlin kept must have been.

Luke continued down the hallway for several minutes, passing several burnt-out torches that hung from the walls. He made sure to keep his steps as silent as he could but had begun to move a little faster than he had before.

Perhaps that was why he suddenly heard the sound of clinking metal coming from down the hallway. Freezing in place Luke strained his ears to focus on the sound, hoping to make out the source of the noise.

The metal's clinking was consistent, and while its volume was barely noticeable it was clearly getting louder. A moment later a figure stepped into the range of his omniscience, revealing itself to be another zombie, this one wearing armor.

***

The zombie knight was in bad condition, with its armor cracked in several spaces, and one of its arms missing. Most importantly was the beast's lack of any helmet, meaning that Luke might have been able to break its head open like the last one he'd fought. That meant he had to make a decision, and quickly.

Luke knew he had the time to run away, due to the long range of his omniscience. As long as he did so in relative silence, he was certain he could manage to make it to the doors before the beast noticed or caught him.

Even knowing that, he found himself reluctant to do so. Somehow it almost felt as though running away was wrong, as if it would make him a coward. Luke knew that to be a foolish train of thought, as he the creature very well could kill him. Yet he couldn't help but feel… like he wanted to fight the beast.

The memory of the last fight echoed in his mind, the way his heartbeat in fear, the way he had needed to thing quickly, the strain in his muscles as he beat the beast with all his strength. It had been… exhilarating, more so than anything else he had ever done in his life.

'But is that justification for risking my life', Luke wondered.

After a few moments of racking his mind, he decided to stand and fight. Not just because the thought of combat made his blood begin to race, but also because of his situation. Luke was stuck in an ancient castle, surrounded by zombie creatures that wanted to kill him. If he wanted to survive, he would need the strength to do so. And, according to the system that strength would come from killing beasts.

Hardening himself for the task that was about to come, Luke began to study the creature as it moved down the hallway. Its armor was completely rusted, adding a grinding undertone to the metallic clinking. Moreover, the beast was in far worse shape than the last creature had been, with several chunks missing from its torso and lower body. In fact, the creature looked as if it had been partially eaten by some sort of beast. There were even claw marks on its armor and flesh, revealing dried black blood clinging to its wounds. One of these slashes sat at the base of the thing's throat, though it looked far smaller and more precise than the others.

'Maybe that's the wound that killed him', Luke wondered curiously.

Readied, Luke waited until the creature was less than a few meters away from him. The sickly-sweet smell he now recognized as rotted flesh wafted off the creature in waves. Far stronger than the scent had clung that the last beast he'd fought before he had put together what the smell was.

When the creature was around one meter in front of him, Luke struck as fast as he could. Rather than tackle the creature, and risk puncturing his skin on its long black claws, Luke took a different approach this time. Having unraveled his chain as quietly as he could, he swung his right arm as hard as he could manage at the creature's head.

He missed the head completely, his depth perception still off from being blind. Still, he was lucky enough for the chain to strike the beast on the chest. The heavy rusted chain clanged against the beast's metal loudly, immediately making Luke want to wince.

The beast stumbled back, the momentum from the chain's swing giving the blow far more force than Luke otherwise would have been able to create. The strike caused the beast to fall backwards, crashing against the stone floor with another loud clang. It seemed the beast possessed a major lack of balance, which made sense as it was clad in heavy stone armor.

Luke moved, clearing the distance to the beast before it could so much as begin to stand up. In fact, upon noticing him the beast didn't even attempt to get to its feet. Rather it began squirming under the weight of its armor, jaws wide in a feeble attempt to bite into Luke's flesh.

Without so much as a pause, Luke raised his left fist that was still clad in his chain and rammed it into the side of the beast's head. The creature didn't seem to notice the blow at all, continuing to close its jaws desperately in Lukes's direction.

Near ten blows to its head later, with extra care taken to avoid the beast's mouth, its head caved in and black brain matter began to flow onto the stone floor.

Luke was breathing heavy by the end of the fight and felt… disappointment. Perhaps because the fight had ended so quickly, or maybe because he hadn't felt as though his life was in danger. But the previous exhilaration that he had felt hadn't been present, in truth the fight had been easy if only slightly extraneous.

'I should just feel lucky to be alive', he decided, though the thought was halfhearted.

Not even a moment later he began to curse himself inside his own head, he had been so excited to fight he hadn't thought about the noise it would make. If he had he might have realized that he could alert other beasts to his presence.

Chiding himself silently, he paused when he saw a notification open in his mind.

"Congratulations, you have slain the human husk of the elite. Your soul is being tempered."

Soul tempering until next rank: [20/100]

"Your magic has formed a shape; you have received the magical affinity: Chained"

Chained: Since you're awakening you have been in chains, at first this was your weakness. Now you have turned it into your strength, thanks to your desperation and will to survive your magic has now taken the shape of that strength. You are now soul bound to your chains; you are theirs just as they are yours. You are now, and forever chained.

Luke read the message, just as a warmth began to form in his chest. Immediately panic seeped into his body, as he remembered the harrowing pain he had felt during his awakening.

Yet the pain did not come, rather he only continued to feel a stark warmth as an unknown energy began to take shape in his body. The energy glowed seemed to glow a crimson color, though no light escaped the confines of his body. A new feeling began to form them, this one racing up both of his arms just below his wrist. The feeling was like a tickling of sorts, with most of the sensation occurring at his bloodied wrists that lay beneath the rusted manacles.

Then a strange tinkling sound occurred, and too Luke's wonder the chains on his arms began to dissipate. Red rust spread off the two chains and into the air, where they quickly seemed to disappear completely, leaving him in awe. After a few seconds the chains were completely gone, leaving on his bare arms and wrists that were still bloody and cut from the metal's presence. Then the tickling sensation intensified until it was nearly all he could focus on, as slowly black marks began to form on his wrists.

The marks began as blobs, which quickly formed into two loops where the manacles had been. After a second they seemed to take on the image of manacles, with two chains growing out of them and spiraling around his forearm, ending less than a centimeter below his elbow. Then the tingling completely stopped, the result being two tattoo like chain marks that started as a manacle around his wrist and snaked up his forearm to end at his elbow.

Luke's head was titled towards the ground in wonder.

'W-what the hell', the thought in complete surprise.