"I do not understand..."
A calm voice, though spoken softly, echoed in what looked like the aftermath of a battle.
A battle not fought with sticks or stones, ammunition or guns, but something else.
As the aftermath said so.
Multi-colored smoke rose from corpses, most dressed like they had jumped out of a fantasy novel, no, better, they had jumped out of a fantasy game.
Their bodies mauled beyond recognition, their torn limbs, mangled torsos, and other body parts the only proof they were once human.
Large craters littered the battlefield, molten magma lining its depths.
An unnatural aesthetic to the once-bare land.
Charred corpses of strange creatures crumbled under the heat, their souls, if they had any, joining the smoke as they rode upward, adding to the darkness of the purple clouds above, crackling with black lightning.
"You... will... never... understand..."
The words came out in pants.
A man clad in golden light armor stood amidst the chaos, barely holding himself up with his longsword, his breaths haggard, each inhale seemingly more painful than the last.
Blood seeped out of his orifices, his golden hair disheveled, corrupted by blood, both from him, his comrades, and the many monsters he had slain.
His armor bore numerous cracks all over, bite marks, blade marks, numerous scars of the battle fought a few moments ago.
Crackle!!
The black lightning thundered, momentarily bathing the battlefield in a purple hue, the light shining upon the man who had spoken earlier.
He stood tall, his hair as dark as the abyss, his eyes obscured by his long bangs.
Unlike the man who barely hung on to life, he was adorned in a modern black shirt, coupled with black trousers, as if this was a casual Tuesday.
Others were geared up for war, yet he didn't bother with artifacts, as unlike them, he didn't need any.
"Huh." Confused, the black-haired man walked closer to the man, his steps slow, yet he crossed the several meters in a moment.
"Yes, I do not understand..." He squatted down, his void-black eyes looking directly into the gem-like emerald eyes of the dying man.
"... That is why I am inquiring..." He added, his gaze shifting from the man, scanning the chaos around, his puzzled expression deepening.
"Why would you risk your life for someone you do not even know...?"
At the end of his words, a beautiful woman appeared out of thin air, gently falling between the two.
She lay unconscious, her breaths slow and rhythmic, unaware of the chaos around.
In the chaos around, she looked like a single snowflake amidst soot.
Her skin as fair as snow, coupled with her shimmery silver hair, she truly looked out of this world.
"I... Cough!! Cough!!" The blonde-haired man coughed a mouthful of blood, losing his grip on his sword.
"No, I can't have you dying now."
Tendrils of dark energy held him up, the black-haired man pouring a blood-red liquid down his throat.
His body shivered slightly, momentarily enveloped by a green glow.
[Consumed a divine-grade elixir]
[Abyssal Hydra's blood]
[Vitality restored]
A blue translucent screen appeared in his mind, his wounds completely healed. With just a few drops, all of his injuries had healed, all his stats back to their peak.
He felt as if he had been reborn, full of vigor, his blurry vision now clear, first noticing his stats.
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Title: Rex Soter
Name: Leo Frasier
Race: Divine Chimera
Level: 80
Exp: 0/640,000
HP: 8000/8000
MP: 4000/4000
SP: 900/900
ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000
INT: 800 AGI: 1000
Status Effect: Healthy
Skill
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Inventory
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Quest
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"I'm alive," he thought to himself, unconsciously feeling his body.
"Can you speak now?!..." The black-haired man's calm voice brought him out of his stupor. Alarmed, he quickly stepped back, grasping his sword.
His gaze shifted to the unconscious woman, then to the chaos.
"You fiend!" Enraged, he dashed forward, his emerald eyes blazing with rage.
With a horizontal slash, he attacked the black-haired man, drawing a golden line in the air.
The black-haired man only stepped back, cleanly dodging the attack.
This created distance between the black-haired man and the unconscious girl, allowing Leo to quickly grab her.
Holding her with one hand, he dashed back, his sword pointed towards the black-haired man. "Photon bullet!" he exclaimed, a starry white blast instantly shooting out of his blade.
Despite the attack moving at the speed of light, the black-haired man simply sidestepped, completely evading the attack.
Before the attack could even move past him, his figure blurred, appearing right beside Leo, an afterimage left where he once stood, and with a light jab, he struck Leo's neck, his figure falling before he knew what hit him.
...
"Hey..."
"Mister Hero..."
Leo, unconscious, could barely make out the sounds, the voice calm, seemingly possessing the temperament of one who could wait for the sun to die out.
"Mister Hero... Wake up!!"
The voice sounded again, the same calm tone, but now louder.
"Time is of the essence..." The voice, without changing its tone, muttered.
"Argh!" Leo screamed in agony as he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, the sudden pain jolting him out of his unconsciousness.
His pained gaze quickly shifted to his shoulder, a gaping hole in it, cloaked by a black shadow-like tentacle, squirming as it dug deeper.
"Argh!" he cried in pain, willing his other hand to remove the tentacle, yet something which should have been so natural now felt impossible.
He could not move his hand.
"You are awake now." The calm voice sounded once again, the black shadow-like tentacle retracting.
The gaping hole, though gushing out blood, did not bring about the expected pain.
He felt nothing.
Now that he thought about it, he felt nothing; his whole body seemed paralyzed.
His gaze swept across the rest of his body, pupils constricting as he noticed the state he was in.
His arms wide open, he hung on a black crystalline cross, crucified by black spikes that protruded from the cross.
"Do not worry about that. I have severed your pain receptors." The calm voice sounded again, reassuring him of his predicament.
Not that any words could be comforting when one finds themselves crucified on a cross.
Leo raised his gaze to the black-haired man in front of him.
He sat cross-legged on a black crystalline throne, which seemed to extend towards the cross, clearly from the same origin.
The silver-haired woman lay unconscious at the foot of the throne.
"Now that I have your attention, can you quench my curiosity?"