"What's your name?"
——————————-
"You're suspected of murder, but because of your good behaviour, you're being sent out of chambers today."
The knights had spoken about letting someone out. It was a brutal sight; he had no arms—they were ripped off—and he was brutally beaten, must've been by the other convicts in the chambers. How does someone just survive that?
"Yeah, just get me out of here because I'm going to puke; I'm sick of this rancid place."
He snarled, and the knights simply sighed before kicking him and throwing his sword out of the chambers as one of the knights spoke strictly.
"The dwarfs can make you prosthetic arms; they operate like real arms, so you should like them. I would recommend you go there since you're no longer a convict, Slace."
Slace sighed, getting up as the knight left back into the chambers. He learned how to use his body so that he could move around without arms.
"Damn knights, being so nice for no reason but strict at the same time, pick a lane."
"But he was right; I can't kill the kings of each kingdom with no arms. I need to avenge my kingdom and clan, and I need arms to do that."
There were 7 kingdoms that occupied the world: the ice kingdom, fire kingdom, dwarf kingdom, sky kingdom, nature kingdom, and knight kingdom.
Slace knew this; being a citizen of this world, after all, he was born a citizen in a kingdom too, and this was basic knowledge they taught kids. Slace's goal, though, was to get to the dwarf kingdom to get his new arms and then work towards killing every king in each kingdom for what they did to him. There was more to Slace's vengeance than just getting revenge for his kingdom and clan.
Slace, with his magic binding cuffs finally off his legs, used his magic to create stone-like arms created from earth magic, binding the stone to his shoulders as he started rotating his shoulders, sighing heavily annoyed. Picking up his blade and putting it on the blade strap on the back of his clothes
"These will have to work for now even if they're weak; might as well work towards getting to the dwarf kingdom then."
People could learn any type of magic in this world, although it was dependent on lots of things; it just seemed Slace had a knack and the experience to perform high-level skills such as creating limbs from magic.
"I should find a village with a library first to see if the magic system is still the same as it was 6 years ago."
Slace looked up at the sky after what he said as the breeze hit his long, straight, black hair, reminiscing in regret.
"It really has been 6 years, huh? I was 15 and so naive back then; I won't make the same mistake again."
Slace tightened his grip, balling his hand into a fist before grabbing his arm with his other hand and looking down in shame. For anyone else this would be freedom, leaving the chambers, but it was different for Slace; he had the burden of his kingdom and clan on his shoulders.
"I don't deserve to feel freedom until I avenge my clan and kingdom."
he said with a tone of searing hatred, his glare deadly. He then let go of his hand and walked off. He needed to follow his objectives; standing around wouldn't do anything.
2.1
Children were playing in the field as they noticed Slace walking towards the village, causing all the children's eyes to glimmer in excitement. One of the children ran away, and the rest of the children ran to Slace, admiring him.
"I hate being an attraction."
Slace said to himself as the children yelled in excitement about finally having a new visitor in the village. Slace had guessed this village wasn't that well known.
Slace then sighed, annoyed, as the kids finally arrived, asking Slace all sorts of questions and gathering around him. He face-planted with his palm.
"This is going to be a long day…"
——-
The kid who ran away from Slace earlier was the village chief's son; now there he was rushing through the door of a house, panting, exhausted but seemingly excited, with that noticeable gleeful smile on his face.
"Father! Father! The village has a new visitor!"
The old chief looked at his son shocked before a huge amount of tears went down his eyes as he cried happily. The chief rubbed his eyes to get rid of the tears as he patted his son on the head. The chief was very happy; it's been forever since they had a visitor.
"Thank you, son."
"You're welcome, Father!" The kid said with a big, gaping smile.
The chief took his son's hand, walking out of the house and leaving to meet Slace. He was happy but also intrigued as he rubbed his chin with his other hand.
"Let's see what type of visitor we have for ourselves."
——
Back to Slace, he was attempting to get away from the village before having to stay there for any longer, but of course he was halted from doing that with the amount of kids crowding him in admiration.
Slace had thought it was quite odd that the kids of the village reacted this way to him. Slace had thought that since the Chambers he just got out of was close to the village, with prisoners coming and going, one of them could've tried and messed with the village, therefore traumatizing the kids. But Slace quickly came to the solution of this thought. Slace then murmured to himself quietly for no others to hear.
"This village has never experienced such things before."
What he thought exactly was that the chambers were very secure, and the guards could notice something happening in the village with the distance between the two. Slace also thought that the chief must've been rather strong to deter incoming threats, and that's why Slace thought to be careful around the village chief.
Finally the children stopped yelling in excitement, although they were still smiling; it wasn't because they had lost interest in Slace but rather because of the soft footsteps of a man and child walking towards Slace. Slace had noticed them walking over even before the children stopped making noise. Now there stood Slace, looking straight at the village chief with calm but cautious eyes. Slace was analyzing the village chief to prepare for what he might do.
The village chief let go of his son's hand and simply walked closer and closer, the footsteps getting louder as the children got out of the way for the village chief. With the complete silence of everything except those footsteps, the intensity of the whole situation only grew more. It felt like forever before both the village chief and Slace were face-to-face.
Then suddenly the village chief moved out his left hand forward, and Slace got ready, moving his left arm up to block, only to embarrass himself as the village chief had only moved his hand to give Slace a handshake.
Slace played it off quickly before anyone could notice by scratching his hair with his left hand, bringing it back down after, and using his other hand to give the village chief a rather hesitant handshake. Slace wasn't heavy on human interaction, so he was slightly hesitant to go through with the handshake, but to keep appearances, he went through with it. The village chief then spoke.
"Nice to meet you. What's your name?"
The handshake stopped as the village chief had a welcoming smile on his face, his eyes soft and gentle; he seemed like a very nice, compassionate man, but he also seemed slightly intimidating for an unknown reason.
Slace then spoke with a cautious but rude tone; he wasn't going to give out info about himself so easily.
"Why should I tell you, a stranger, such closely kept information?"
Slace didn't care about these people at all; what he thought was that these people were pointless and useless to him, so he shouldn't bother giving them any information about himself.
The children got scared by Slace's tone, backing away, huddling together, and looking down intimidated. But then the village chief spoke, his soft voice guiding the children back into safety, but now those children were going back to their homes because night would soon arrive.
"That's alright, you don't have to tell me, but we're happy to have you for as long as you want to be here."
Slace averted his eyes, irritated, walking away past the village chief. It was getting dark, and too much time had already been wasted Slace thought.
"Yeah, whatever, just get out of my way."
The village chief simply smiled, turning to look back at Slace; he knew what he was going to do.
"It's not a good idea to go outside the village at night."
Slace simply ignored the village chief as the village chief sighed with worry and pity.
"Looks like I'll have to be saving another visitor again."
2.2
Before leaving the village, Slace ended up checking for any libraries. There were some, but all were closed because it was already night.
Slace noticed a sign at the end of the village showing the direction to the knight kingdom. Using that, he followed the path planted on the ground towards the knight kingdom. It was going to be a long travel; Slace reckoned it would take the whole night.
Slace had two goals before enacting his revenge on the kings of each kingdom: find a library for info on magic and current events and get to the dwarf kingdom to get new and better prosthetic arms. The dwarf kingdom was the furthest kingdom, and the fastest route was to go through all the other kingdoms; at least that was from Slace's recollection.
Two wolves then came out of some bushes salivating and growling, a very common type of monster. Slace took out his blade, unsheathing it and waiting for them to come at him.
The wolves came straight at Slace, rushing at him with their teeth out and fierce, ready to attack. The wolves leaped at Slace, ready to chomp on him.
Slace moved his sword slightly to the side as the wolves got closer. Slace then dodged effortlessly, sidestepping to the side of one of the wolves, lifting his sword above the wolves, who were still in midair, and lunging his sword down at the wolf on his side, slashing it diagonally in half with one clean slice. It was almost instant, the corpse falling to the ground, splattering blood all over the ground.
And before the second wolf could even react, it was already burning in flame from Slace's dark fire magic, as black as a silhouette.
"A pointless attempt, but… I didn't intend to use that variant of my fire magic…?"
Slace felt slightly exhausted, but it quickly went away as he looked at his hands before imbuing them with fire and as he thought.
"It's constantly changing between dark and orange fire; this is bad. If I use too much of that fire, I will suffer consequences."
Slace then quickly got rid of his fire magic before anything bad happened; Slace's fire magic was acting out.
"I just won't use fire magic for now."
——
But secretly someone was watching Slace and noticed his dark flames. The village chief noticed this whole scene. He had come to save Slace just in case he faced danger, but the Village Chief never expected to see that type of fire again.
"So he's a part of that clan."
The village chief blinked.
"Your fear is leaking a noticeable presence."
Slace stood right behind the village chief, Slace's cold breath touching the village chief's neck.
The village chief quickly turned around and attacked, thrusting his arm at Slace's head. Slace quickly ducked, dodging the assault, gripping the hilt of his sword with one hand, and pressing his other hand's palm onto the sword's pommel, moving upwards, attempting to dig his blade into the village's chief's chin and all the way through his head.
But the village chief had stepped back, dodging.
Slace then moved his arm away from the pommel of his blade as the village chief lunged his leg up from the side into a straightforward kick to Slace's stomach.
Slace quickly moved his blade down and his free arm behind his blade, the kick colliding with the blade and Slace's arm, stopping most of the damage but still knocking Slace back slightly.
Slace stopped blocking as he looked at his arm and blade, the blade having no damage, but Slace's arm, made of magic, sustaining some damage. He then looked up at the village chief.
"You embedded your attacks with magic to make them faster and stronger. I was correct; you are strong."
The village chief got into a fighting stance; he was quite serious.
"That fire, it's Endland's magic… you're a part of that clan; that makes you a threat."
Slace averted his eyes, irritated, so he did notice the dark fire. Slace then looked at the village chief with an apathetic, merciless glare.
"Guess I'll have to kill you then…"
The village chief then rushed at Slace, going for a straight hard punch to Slace's face. Slace just stood there as suddenly the village's chief's arm was gone, sliced clean off. And before the chief could even react, his head had also been sliced off, falling to the ground as his body fell, blood pouring onto the ground.
Slace then looked down at the village chief's corpse, not even feeling an ounce of regret or sympathy.
"You're just like the wolves, fighting a threat knowing you'll die."
A map fell out of the village's chief's pockets as Slace picked it up. It was rolled up, so Slace rolled it down; it was a map of the whole world.
"At least you were worth the kill."
Before Slace left, he said something, and even though the corpse of the village chief wouldn't hear it, Slace felt the village chief deserved it.
"My name is Slace."
Slace then left the body and took the map, walking away to get to the knight kingdom.