I feel a bit disoriented. What the hell just happened?
I'm looking around, and these surroundings... this isn't where I was on the rooftop just a moment ago. It feels as if I'm in a room; it's dark, and I can barely see a thing.
Beneath my feet those markings of light slowly begin vanishing.
"You idiot! Does that look like the dark lord to you?" snarled a voice from a cloaked figure hidden in the darkness.
"My apologies, master. I did everything you told me... maybe we made a miscalculation," said another voice, timid and more hesitant sounding, from within the shadows.
My eyes adjust to the dark, and their silhouettes begin to take shape where the voices came from.
The more timid-sounding one is on their hands and knees, bowing at the other one's feet.
"Where the hell am I? And who the hell are you two?" I mutter, my voice echoing as I step off the strange platform I found myself atop of and inch toward the shadowy figures looming in the dark.
"Our names don't matter; you won't be alive long enough to have any use for them, you absolute failure of a summon." growls the one called Master, stepping from the shadows until his face comes into view.
Before I can respond, he thrusts his hands forward and utters the words, "Tempest Whirlwind." In almost an instant, a wall of flames erupts from the palm of his hand and hurtles toward me.
What the hell even is that? For once in my life, I get hit with genuine surprise as I quickly spring into action and dodge his attack, taking cover behind a pillar in the darkness.
As I hide behind the pillar, I try to think of a game plan. I've never gone up against... whatever the hell this guy even is. And... great, I don't even have a pistol on me, only my pocket knife. Seems my only option is close combat.
My only problem is this guy can apparently shoot flames in an instant from his freaking hands, which is certainly a huge problem for me. If this is the fight that kills me, I really hope it isn't. Burning to death always sounded like the least fun way to go for me.
"Hiding from me, are you? I clocked you weren't the dark lord right away, but I didn't take you for a coward to boot. You truly are a disappointment in more ways than one." The one called Master snarls as he then mutters the same incantation again, and another wall of fire tears through the darkness, striking blindly where he thinks I might be.
He fires the same flames again and again, firing aimlessly trying to find where I am and burn me to a crisp. He inches closer and closer to my position, all the while cackling like a hyena in between each incantation.
I need to be absolutely quick if I'm to beat this guy. Catch him off guard, and slice his neck nice and clean before he can retaliate with his wall of flames. This could get risky.
I focus my mind, only concentrating on the sound of his footsteps as he approaches. He keeps inching closer and closer, and I ready my pocket knife in my right hand, gripping it tightly.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you burn. This was to be my day. My day of triumph. All the years I researched. The funds I invested. The lives I sacrificed all for this one day. The day of the dark lord's return to this realm. Instead, I find some silver-haired brat being summoned to my world instead. Your screams of agony will be music to my ears." The master drones on as he approaches, each step bringing him closer to the pillar that conceals me.
He closes the distance. Within an instant, I move—grab his arm, pivot, and slide behind him. He never gets the incantation out. I stop him from being able to as my blade cuts his throat; he staggers, blood spilling, then goes down. I watch as he lies there lifeless on the ground and blood begins pooling around him.
"Oh no! Master!" his quivering minion cries out, falling to the floor in terror and scrambling backward as I advance towards him with a cold look in my eye.
What shall I do with this one? It's not like this is one of my jobs, so I don't have the real need to kill him. I suppose I can get some information out of him. After that whole fight, I certainly have plenty of questions, the first one being, where the fuck even am I?
"You seem scared. You should be; that means you have good instincts. But I'm not particularly in the mood to spill more blood, so here's what I'll do for you: I'll give you an opportunity to live. That is, of course, as long as you answer all my questions. Are we understood?" I murmur, the tip of my blade biting into his neck as he scrabbles upright.
He nods slowly, careful not to make a mistake. I remove his hood to inspect him: a young man, barely twenty years old. I then begin questioning the boy as we go back and forth rapid-fire, me in a calm and collected manner while he answers in a more skittish and hurried one.
"Where am I?"
"Right now? Cargrin Manor... it's an old abandoned... castle out in the middle of Hardijin Forest."
"Never heard of either of these places. What country are we in?"
"The... the Kingdom of Natios."
"Once again, a place I've never heard of before. Forget where; let's go with what. What did you and that pyro idiot over there do to me? Why am I here?"
"I... it... it was an accident... sir. My master... um... former master... he recruited me to help him in his quest to summon the dark lord. He'd spent years researching how to do just that. However, he didn't have a high enough level in summoning and needed me to complete the ceremony. Something must've... gone wrong... and then you showed up."
"Levels? Summoning? You're making it sound like I'm in some kind of fantasy role-playing game. Start making things make sense, or I'll—"
Before the rest of the sentence leaves my mouth, a searing beam of light bursts from the kid's hand. A wolf blinks into existence as if from nowhere and springs at me, hot breath and wet teeth closing in as it goes on the attack.
The kid makes a run for it as the wolf comes at me with its flashing fangs. I duck a leap from the beast as I feel its claws scrape past my arm and end it with one clean, decisive cut as I slice open its abdomen.
My attention then turns back to the kid as he still makes a break for it at a... rather slow pace. Seems he doesn't have an athletic bone in his body. I sprint towards him as he looks back with a panicked expression.
It takes merely a few seconds for me to catch up to him as I then leap atop him, slamming his head to the ground, causing him to be cut open a bit on his forehead as it scrapes against the stone floor. He cries tears brought about purely by fear, begging profusely as I hold his head down to not kill him.
I didn't have any real desire to kill him before, nor do I have one now. But I can't risk him summoning some other pets; he already showed me his intention to kill with that act, so I shall return to him the same attitude.
With that, my blade reaches his throat and, with one fluid motion, slices him open. It takes mere seconds before the light leaves his eyes and he remains still on the floor.
I really wish he hadn't done that; I'd have let him go after my questioning. Oh well. I suppose I can find someone else to question about what exactly is going on; I doubt these were the only two people in this world... wherever it is. Right now my main goal is finding out where exactly the place I've been summoned to is.
I've just witnessed a man who can shoot fire from his hands and a kid who can summon seemingly living creatures. I don't know where the hell I am... but it certainly isn't my world.
Wait a minute... if that's the case, then maybe... is there a chance I'm finally free from the grip of The Delivery? Free from the tedious and life-draining job of contract killing I'd been trained for since... as early as I can remember. I never even conceived of a reality where that would be possible, and yet... it just may be possible.
Best... best not to dwell on it for now until I figure out exactly what's going on, I suppose. First thing's first, I want to get the hell out of this dark and dingy castle.