Time: ???
Location: Somewhere in Valara
Wayne heard a ruffling sound in the bush behind him, which caught his attention. He turned around and stared into the bushes, capturing a pair of eyes staring at him.
"Hey, who's there?" Wayne yelled at the unknown creature, trying to lure him out.
The creature started to speak an unknown language, one Wayne had never heard of. Suddenly, the thing comes out of the bushes, rushing at Wayne, with a broad sword, but fortunately, Wayne quickly jolted his body away, just missing him. Wayne landed in a pile of colorful leaves, reducing his dive's impact. But then, the creature landed on Wayne with his sword aiming at Wayne's neck, but Wayne caught onto the sword, barely saving himself from his throat slitting.
"Wait, listen to me. I don't know what this place is, and I don't understand what you're saying, but give me a chance to explain what's going on."
"W̸̟̮̓h̵̤̋͑ȍ̷͎̓͠ ̶̗̽a̵̛͔͚͎͋̍r̸͈̻͂̈́e̵̦̽͝ ̷͖̮͔̇́̌ẙ̸̲̰̑͝ò̵̞͇̯ứ̸̜̙̗͝!" For a moment, Wayne could understand what the creature was saying, but he also realized that the person who was moments from slicing his throat was actually a human being just like him.
The unknown human pushed the sword further in, increasing the pressure of the blade on Wayne's hand, causing his palm to rush out with blood. Wayne's face turned red, activating his reflexes, making him lift his pinned legs off the ground, delivering a blow to the human's groin, causing it to lose its grip on Wayne.
The human became enraged, with its face burning with rage, the human chanted something. Wayne couldn't understand it fully, but he heard one thing he could...
"K̶̞̔͝i̴͈̞̅͑l̵͒̓ͅḷ̸͎͊͆"
Kill...
Wayne stepped back away from the human. The human's eyes burned with rage, still chanting in an unknown language, but Wayne could slowly start to understand it. Suddenly, the human's sword started burning with fire, swaying with the wind.
"Is that magic?" Wayne definitely knew that this world was way different than Aetherion. Magic never co-existed there.
The fire started to get bigger, and the human's face started to get angrier. The human was trying to kill Wayne, and Wayne knew that.
Wayne clenched his palm into a fist. Although Wayne has never practiced any martial arts, it was his only way to end this.
Wayne's goal was to knock the sword out of its hand, giving Wayne an open shot right in the face. Wayne got in his fighting stance, with his left arm further out than his right, and then taunted the human to rush at him.
The human fell for the bait, rushing straight towards Wayne. Wayne prepared for his counter, but you could tell that he was nervous, as it was his first time trying to fight. Now the human was just inches away from slashing Wayne, but then, Wayne quickly timed his grab, holding onto the human's arm, then proceeding to disarm the sword.
He did it...
Wayne pushed the human away, gaining some distance from him. But then, the atmosphere got silent, the human had a menacing look on its face. Its eyes burned with red fire, and Wayne felt its blazing aura scorching him.
Then suddenly, the human started to do something with its hands, creating a ball of fire with both of its hands.
"Wispfire!" The human yelled out a name of some sort, a spell name. He launched the fireball at Wayne, but it wasn't a big one, but it was fast. Wayne spotted the sword he threw on the ground.
"I have to kill it...," Wayne mumbled as he swiftly dove into the sword, grabbed it and quickly stabbed the human in the hip.
The human turned its head around, and looked at Wayne, examining at Wayne's face.
"Who really are you?" The human asked Wayne, with an expression of fright.
Wayne smirked, his eyes staring right at the human. His voice, smooth yet laced with something unsettling, cut through the silence:
"I am the shadow in your flames."
The human eyes widened. Wayne finally understood the language they were speaking. It was the ancient language of "Drekanis" that Wayne read a long time ago in a book he found in a library. All of a sudden, Wayne could see a burning fire in the human, dying out. The human was slowly dying.
"You aren't supposed to be here," the human struggles to say.
"Yes... your right, I'm not supposed to be here right now, but somehow I am."
Wayne suddenly pushed the sword deeper, hurting the human as he screamed. Then he proceeded to flip the sword, making the blade face upwards, then sliced the human upward, splitting its body in two.
Blood splattered all over Wayne's white button-up t-shirt and face. He looked at the dead body...
"Sorry... you were wasting my time."
Wayne grabbed the human's sword belt, storing the sword inside, knowing he might need it later. He took off his shirt and tied it around his waist. Wayne looked at his body, still finding that all his bandages and injuries were still there, but they weren't affecting him at all.
Wayne looked around him, trying to find out where he was, but he had no knowledge of this world. All he could see was an endless view of colorful leaves and trees. Wayne walked further into the forest, looking for water so he could wash himself and his clothes. Wayne had an ominous feeling that even though the forest looked majestic, there were still going to be monsters lurking in the darkness, so he kept his guard up.
Wayne finally found a pond that looked clear to him, and safe to dive in. But upon taking a closer look, he saw a group of creatures, like an eel. Its skin was translucent and was glowing with the water.
"Sorry odd-looking creatures, but this pond is now mine!" Wayne pulls out his sword, aiming it straight down at the eels. Wayne turns silent, focusing purely on one eel, the leader, and he goes for a stab. The eels around the main one quickly swam away, while the main one was stuck on Wayne's sword. Wayne gently lifted his sword out of the water, making sure he didn't lose the fish. He examines the eel, looking at its unique body.
"Lidless eyes huh? Alright time to take a relaxing bath!"
Wayne dove in the pond, making a loud splash, and scaring all the birds away from the trees. The water was lukewarm, enough to keep him warm.
10 minutes later
Wayne got out of the pond, drenched in water. He took a pile of leaves, rubbing them on himself, drying him up. He took his clothes from the tree branch he put his clothes on. He dressed back up in his clothes, which had a lot of holes from the battle earlier on and with the dragon in Solvex.
Wayne decided to explore the forest a little more, trying to find some hints on where he could be. But before he could do that, Wayne heard a ringing sound in his ears. It gave Wayne a massive headache, and he was trying to get rid of it by smacking his ear, thinking there was something stuck inside, but that wasn't the case.
Moments later, he heard a woman talking, and he remembered this voice. It was the lady at the secret lab, the one that sent him here.
"Listen here, Wayne!" Wayne's face turned serious. "You need to listen to me now, or else you'll most likely be killed. You're in a world called Valara, a world that's never been studied, and your goal is to... study it."
"You never told me that there's magic in this world. I almost got killed."
"Magic? Interesting. Look, the only way to survive and properly conduct your research here is to follow The Path"
"The Path?"
"Yes, The Path. You can choose not to follow the path at some point in time, but your risk of survival drops drastically, so don't go beyond your boundaries."
"Yea, enough with this bullshit, what happened to Arthur." There was some silence when he asked that, making Wayne nervous for Arthur.
"Arthur is no more, you should worry about yourself now kid, or else you could end up like him."
Wayne smirked back, "You could of at least made a better lie. There's no way a man like him would've been defeated unless you pulled some dirty tricks."
"Listen I don't want you to die, so listen to me carefully. You have a chip in your head so we can communicate with you. But the chip also allows you to store information about this world, and it allows you to view The Path. Use it carefully. Whenever you feel like it, call me. I'll be monitoring you. By the way, my name is Vivian Stone, but call me Mrs. Stone. It's a pleasure working with you Wayne, do your best."
"Yeah, likewise." Wayne's face was mad, and he wondered why he had to work with her. But right now, his goal was to get out of this place as fast as possible and to do that, he had to...
Follow The Path