Golden Wheat village
"Oh no, not again." In a small barn, a lovely silver-haired woman who should have been chattering for a bull twice the size of an elephant could now be seen laying on the mud-covered floor; the left side of her hair now had bull feces visible hanging from its strands.
In the dark light of the barn, the air was thick with the earthy aroma of hay mingled with the strong stink of bull feces.
The once-pristine silver strands of the woman's hair glistened with grime, contrasting strongly with her beautiful features. She winced as she sought to rise, her fingers slipping into the sticky dirt underneath her. The chilly, moist texture contrasted with the warm sunshine flowing through the barn's wooden slats.
The distant sound of a bull's low moan echoed, a reminder of the chaos that had unfolded moments before. A sense of frustration washed over her as she brushed the muck from her hair, the gritty particles clinging stubbornly to her skin. She groaned, attempting to shake off the embarrassment while considering her next move in this unusual position.
"It happened again," the woman muttered. "This is becoming more frequent". It had been two months since she awakened in the body of Helice. And over the previous two months the small explosion of headache had done nothing to quiet her sanity in this weird new world she now found herself in; if anything, it appeared like it might become the death of her. She wanted to find a method to at least get herself together, as understanding the source of these headaches and the explanation behind her unexplained shift seemed unattainable at the moment.
At first they were short, coming at random a few times a day, a soft wave like a pulse of lightning passing through her skull, but lately they had only been happening once a day, but it appeared as though the combined might had been compacted into a single attack.
The intensity of each incident left her breathless, as if the entire fabric of her reality was disintegrating around her.
The events often renders her unconscious sometimes, much like her current condition; sometimes for an unknown period of time, Amis would often take her inside without her knowing.
Given that she was currently lying on a pile of shit, Amis might have been too preoccupied to notice that she had passed out again.
Helice couldn't help but curse at her current situation. Although the state of affairs of her previous world was bad—earth was bad—she would gladly take it over her.
However, just as she was about to gloat at herself.
"Come on, Amis, we've been lenient with you on account of your history with the boss."
"You know the deal—a half of your yearly harvest."
A flood of menacing statements burst through the air so fiercely that Helice could hear them from a few yards away.
Helice straightened up and gathered herself. "They are here again," she whispered to herself. Once every month the local bandit would often come to collect tribute from them, running around like they ruled the world under the cover of protection money.
Helice dusted herself as much as she could before exiting the barn, to be met with a very familiar sight.
She had inherited the memories of the original Helice and knew pretty well who these men were; they were the Red Bandit gang, a bunch of murdering thieves. She subconsciously hid behind the barn door.
The man currently arguing with Amis was the second in command to the red bandit; he was a man appearing to be in his mid-thirties, with plenty of tattoos covering half of his topless body and another tattoo of a green snake curling around his neck and covering half of his face. His name was Snake Face; behind him were five other members of the Red Bandit group.
Snake Face was currently glaring at Amis menacingly. Snake Face was especially known as a very ruthless character in these parts.
"How about you let us have a few minutes with your wife?" one of the men behind Snake Face said before releasing mincing laughter.
At that moment Amis turned to see the Helice, who was currently hiding behind the barn door; all signs showed that her sickness had acted up again.
Amis turned to face Snake Face with the intention of begging but quickly swallowed his thoughts; he remembered what happened the last time he tried to stand up to the red bandit, and Helice had paid the price.
He was the reason Helice had been reduced to her current state, becoming a mere shadow of her previous self. Their peaceful life had shattered since that day, and things had never been the same. Helice being alive today is nothing short of a miracle.
Amis clenched his fist ever so tightly, so much so that his knuckles turned white, as he took one last look at the cowering Helice; she was probably scared to death by Snake Face.
He then suddenly a deep s. How naïve was he to think he could have a simple life? In the chiliocosm realms that make up the planar realm, only with sufficient power and strength can one dream of having a blissful life.
Snake face was only a rank one acolyte, not fully an official planar mage, yet he could run around unhindered; of course, when he encountered an official magus, he would have to commit suicide before angering such an existence.
But as he thought of the life he had led with Helice, the fulfillment, far away from the power struggles and chaos of the path of power, he couldn't help but smile.
Contrary to what Amis was thinking, he didn't know the Helice he knew and loved was already dead and her soul had been replaced by a mentally retarded and morally gray scientist from Earth, Minerva Bayer.
Helice had different thoughts going through her mind. Yes, she was afraid of Snake Face, and the man had caused the original Helice major multifocal hemorrhaging with a single blow.
The original Helice had lost her life in an instant, allowing for the Minerva from Earth to possess her lifeless body.
Although a major multifocal hemorrhaging doesn't sound like much, the circumstances surrounding the red bandits currently fascinated her.
According to the memories of the original Helice Snakeface, she was a Rank 1 acolyte, a term the original Helice had known very little about.
Apparently this world is vastly different from Earth, where science and technology thrive; people here, on the other hand, could manipulate something called planar energies, or the Aether.
Individuals who have achieved certain mastery over the illusive arts are called planar magi or planar masters.
And this man, Snake Face, according to the memories of the original Helice, had taken the first step in the path of planar magic.
The first step in the acolyte rank, even though he was only a rank 1 acolyte, was still very far from becoming a real planar master; he was still more than five times stronger than ordinary humans.
Looking at some like Snake face, who by earth's standards possesses superhuman abilities, the scientist in Minerva wanted nothing more than to tear the man open and see what makes him thick.
Minerva now Helice was looking at Snake Face as she was looking at a literal treasure trove; a strange smile suddenly arced across her lips. But Amis was too preoccupied with his situation to see his wife drooling.
"Amis, don't make me repeat myself. There will be no leniency this time. Pay up, or we burn the place to the ground, and you pay up anyway." Snake face the men brandish weapons.