A warm sun blazed in the sky, sending waves of heat down upon a lone figure walking through the desert. His hand was clenched over his injured stomach, desperately trying to slow the bleeding.
His vision blurred, and his steps grew slower with each stride he took away from the place where he was stabbed.
Fearing further injury if he stayed there, he bit his lip, trying to cope with the pain. He cursed under his breath.
After some time spent walking through the endless desert, he finally looked up. His yellow, doe-like eyes caught sight of a city in the distance.
He immediately brightened and tried to move faster, but his legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the burning sand.
He gasped loudly as he looked down at his stomach.
"Dammit… it's gotten even worse," he cursed, giving up for a moment. He lay on his back, closed his eyes, and decided to take a break.
All he could think was, "How the hell did I end up here?" He sighed to himself, deciding to start from the beginning.
-Before hours ago-
"Almos" was the world of dreams, a place where little souls resided. They all had one job: to enter the bodies of the recently deceased and fulfill their final wish.
This was only for those who had been killed and whose hearts burned for revenge.
Each soul followed their master's orders.
Once they entered a body, they had a specific period of time to complete their mission. If they failed, they would be punished.
Most souls did their job perfectly, or at least, almost every soul did. There was always an exception, and 'Emris' was that exception. He had always failed his missions.
He didn't know why he failed, but he had given up on humans and their desires. Why should he suffer for some dead person's stupid wish?
However, his master had another plan for him.
He sent Emris to a new body to complete the body last wish and threatened to expel him from "Almos" and turn him into a lost soul if he didn't succeed this time and he had only one year to complete his mission. that's how he ended up in his current predicament.
In the present
Emris blinked, then sighed and began to transform into his true form. His dark brown hair turned into a long, white mane. His yellow eyes became light blue, and his dark brown skin turned ghostly white.
He transformed to speed up the healing process, but he whined in annoyance as a beeping sound rang in his ears. He opened his eyes to see a large, stat-like window with a huge "WARNING" displayed on it.
"Emris! You know it's forbidden to transform into your real shape in the human world!" the system's voice spoke with a soft, warning tone.
"Oh, please, cut me some slack, would you? You know I'll heal faster this way and get my damn job done sooner!" Emris replied with annoyance.
"But the master—"
Emris immediately cut him off. "The master wouldn't know unless you tell him, so just turn a blind eye!"
An awkward silence followed his words. Then, Emris let out a loud scream as the system transformed into a small, white creature and jumped directly onto his wound, making him curse and scream in pain.
Emris immediately grabbed the little system, squeezing it between his hands. "I'll kill you!" he said angrily, clutching his injured stomach.
"You know I could make you suffer even more and give you no information about your mission!" the little system threatened.
Emris sighed and let go of him; he certainly didn't want to suffer more. He hated this damn job.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! Now give me all the information about this human," Emris said. He closed his eyes, focusing on his recovery while he listened to the system.
"Anore. That's the body's name. He's 17 years old and was killed in the desert after being tricked by a group of people. Their leader stole all of Anore's money after lying that he would give him a medicine to heal his sick mother."
"Was he stupid or something? It was obviously a lie!" Emris exclaimed, but he immediately shut his mouth after seeing the glare on the system's face. The creature, despite its angry expression, still looked adorable in its little form.
"Anyway... your job is to kill the leader and his followers. Plus, you have to find a way to heal his mother."
"Oh, hell no! That's too much. I only agreed to kill the damn leader and his followers. Why should I care about another human? You know I don't know anything about humans!"
Emris protested, shaking his head with annoyance. "Well, that's your problem," the system replied. "I only gave you what the master ordered me to."
Emris rolled his eyes. Looking down, he saw that his injuries had finally healed, which meant he had to get to work. He transformed back into his human form, stood up, and stretched his body with a smile. Now that the pain was gone, he was in a much better mood.
"Now we can go! To be fair, I'm excited to see the human world again, since I forget about it every time I fail a mission," Emris said, walking toward the city.
He wrapped a large, brown scarf he found in his little bag around his face. He liked it because it looked cool, not realizing it made him look suspicious, but he wore it anyway.
As he walked toward the city, some of Anore's memories flashed in his mind. He blinked, confused. Wasn't he supposed to have all the memories by now? Why was he only getting a little? He thought to himself
And he was about to ask the system about it, but he looked up as they reached the city gate. He was mesmerized by the sight. Kids ran everywhere, and a loud noise filled the air as people walked, argued, and shouted about things he didn't understand.
No one seemed bothered by the sun as he walked through the streets, followed by his little companion, who was invisible to others.
Emris was enjoying the colorful sights and the different spices he could smell. He could also hear beautiful music played by a strange man holding a weird-looking instrument. He walked around and get even crowded it seemed something is happening so he go closer to take a look
But he gasped when the crowd pushed him into a group of women who were dancing. As he tried to regain his balance, he watched them in their beautiful clothes, putting on a show for everyone. He felt like a fool, standing there in the middle of them with everyone watching
He felt uneasy so he immediately started to get away from them by pushing the people to make a path for him That was terrifying," Emris muttered as he looked at the system.
"Anyway, what should I do now?"
"Go to Anore's home," the system replied.
"And where is that?" Emris asked
"How should I know? You're the one who has his memories!" the system shot back
"Oh... well, about that, I don't have any memories," Emris admitted.
"You WHAT?!" the system shrieked in shock. "You were supposed to have all his memories by now! Why didn't you say anything? How are you going to live in the human world if you don't know anything about them?"
Emris was annoyed; he shouldn't be getting lectured when it wasn't his fault. But his eyes widened when the system said it had to go back and figure out what was wrong.
"Wait, wait! You can't leave me alone here!" he panicked as the system disappeared completely.
"DAMN IT!" he screamed, looking around. People were watching him, and some women were pulling their kids away as if he were a madman.