"Muahahaha!"
The villainous laughter came from a demon.
He sat on his throne, twirling his mustache evilly. "Servant! Bring me the baby!"
Such was the command of the demon king, and his servant brought him the baby. It was still in its crib, and sleeping peacefully. Then, the demon king flicked it in its soft, fat rosy cheeks, causing it to cry.
"AHAHAHAAHA! YES, SO EVIL! Servant, give it a lollipop!"
His servant, an esteemed demon, capable of using powerful dark magic, went over and handed the baby a red circle lollipop. The demon king snickered wickedly, rubbing his hands together.
On instinct, the baby began to lick the lollipop joyfully to calm itself.
"YES! Unhealthy dietary habits at a young age! Do you even know how much sugar is in that thing!? Muahahahahaha!"
Then, being very evil, the demon king took a lollipop from the baby, snatching it from its hand forcefully, causing the baby to cry.
"MUAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA! SO EVIL, YES, SO EVIL! I'M A VILLAIN, NOT A MONSTER… OH WAIT, I AM A MONSTER! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
The demon king laughed in the baby's face as he licked the lollipop, shoving it down his throat and gagging on it before licking up the plentiful saliva off of the lollipop, laughing in the baby's face.
"Aha! You want the lollipop, but you can't, I took it! Muahahaha!"
Then, he promptly finished his wicked deeds by twirling his mustache and going back to his throne.
"Sir," the servant said. "The two heroes who were prophesied to fight you have arrived."
"Huh? Oh, ok, cool, whatever. What're they like?"
"We don't know much, sir. But apparently, one of them is prone to temper tantrums, and the other is quite the charmer."
"Hm… okay, whatever. It don't really matter. Bring me a toddler boy next, I need to give some wet-willies and purple nurples."
The servant did just that, and the demon king also did just that as well.
…
"Holy shit… this dude's messed up for real…"
Arthur's eyes opened. Within his vision, were a group of five men, all dressed in dark clothes.
The sky was crystal white as a result of the snow. Arthur looked at them with a hint of angriness, as he hated being looked at so pitifully.
Arthur stood up, looking at them, his face red and brown with acne, and dried blood.
"What do you want?" He asked them. "Uh…"
They backed off, as they came to the same conclusion the bandits from last night came to, that he wasn't human.
"Nothing," one of the men said, before rushing away. Arthur watched them run, balling up his fists.
Strangely enough, he chose now to be a moment of reflection over his life. He sat back down on the snow, resting against the tree and covering his face with his hands.
'What am I even doing with my life?'
He didn't move, stuck in complete stillness.
Some time passed, anywhere from 5 minutes to 20, before he slowly got up, standing and walking through the forest, his footsteps making those lovely crunchy noises.
'I'm never going to see my family again, am I? Not like it matters.'
'But still…'
He leaned against a tree for support, looking down at the white, untouched snow.
'For the only people that I could say actually kinda cared about me, like dad, or maybe even mom…'
But he recognized that even back on Earth, he'd made his decision. And as such, it was not the transportation to another world that made him unable to see them ever again, but rather his own self.
He continued to walk aimlessly through the woods, staggering and swaying, as brittle as a leaf.
Eventually, he heard yelling, and slowly walked to the sound of the screaming. He stumbled across a fight between three men, as it was two against one.
'Back then, I couldn't create gunpowder-like dust, so I couldn't create guns. But I wonder if I can do it now?'
They all seemed to be human, though they were currently rushing around, jumping from tree to tree and aiming for physical attacks from different angles.
Arthur summoned a gun-looking object, before creating dust from the blood of dragons, which led to it being extremely explosive, like how his mom's Dragon Art worked.
He reinforced the "gun" itself, so as to not be destroyed by the explosion. He created a trigger, which would act as a subconscious thing in his brain to notify him to explode the dust, before then making a bullet that fit the hole nicely.
The men, who were all fighting, noticed Arthur, stopping for a moment, as the weaker man who was injured from being jumped, called out for help.
"I'm here for no reason. I wonder, are any of us here for any meaningful reasons? Why do we have to create our own meanings? Don'tcha think it'd be nice if we all had meaning prepackaged with our lives?" Arthur said, staring at the men who were closed together.
"The hell're you blabbering—"
Arthur pointed the gun and pulled the trigger, blasting the man in the head with a bullet. The man was on top of a tree, so his body fell off the branch, hitting the snow and dying it red.
Arthur snickered, laughing to himself.
"Well? Will you answer me or not?"
"W-what the fuck is wrong with you!? Son of a bitch!"
The man immediately left his dead ally behind, sprinting away into the woods. Arthur summoned a cutlass and rushed him down. The man wasn't slow, but Arthur was simply too quick.
Arthur slashed him in the back, severing his spinal cord. The man grunted in pain, falling to the ground, paralyzed.
Arthur circled around him to the front, taking out the "gun" and attempting to use it even further.
He pointed the gun at the man's head, pulled the trigger, and continued firing rapidly.
Each time a bullet was launched out, he'd pump in more blood, as both a bullet and the gunpowder, spraying the man's skull with blood.
He went on for 3 seconds of continuous, unstopped fire before absorbing the gun and blood into himself for later usage.
Arthur took all of the blood he could, before the man approached him.
"Thank you. I can't see your level, so I'm sure that means you must not be human, correct?"
"I'm technically only 1% dragon; mostly human."
The man seemed shocked, and a bit disgusted.
"Oh! Um, okay. That's a little gross, but, okay… In any case, thank you for helping me. I might have died if you hadn't saved me."
"Okay."
Arthur turned around and walked away, before hearing loud footsteps approaching from behind. He formed the gun and pointed the gun at the man, suspecting him of betraying him, but the man wasn't moving.
Instead, Arthur saw Raiden behind him, rushing at him.
"You douchebag!"
Such was the insult Raiden chose, reaching Arthur and standing still. "After the event last night, it was such a hassle at the castle that I thought to just bring you back. I'm sorry about being so loud, want me to keep it down next time?"
"——"
"Dang it Arthur, don't be like that. Come on back, we've got a demon king to kill! Oh, and by the way, you look like trash, who the heck roughed you up?"
"Whatever."
Arthur huffed and went back to the castle with Raiden.
…
"These will be your party members. They shall accompany you on your journey to the demon king's castle."
So said the king in the throne-room. Arthur looked at his party members.
In total, there would be five. However, it seemed more like 4.5, or 4.3, seeing as there was a little girl on the team.
And not just any "she's actually 1000 years old" baloney, but a genuine child of 6 years old.
"Heya, I'm Rugsibar," said a dwarf with long brown hair and a full, thick beard. He was of a short stature, as expected, but ridiculously jacked. As in, he seemed to be a compressed ball of muscle.
"Greetings, I am Sylvia," said a blond haired, green eyed elf woman. She was of about average height for a woman, with a well-fitting green and white dress, along with a crown of flowers on her head.
"I'm Raiden. And this is Arthur," explained, well, Raiden. Arthur looked away, not wanting to make eye contact with any of them due to being strangers.
Though, he noticed that the third new ally hadn't said anything, so he looked at the girl. She was short, obviously, with short blue hair and a fairly square face, with blue eyes as well and a short white cape over her shoulders.
"What's your name?" He asked.
The girl looked up with a smug expression. "I… I am Sayuggris. Though, y-you can call me Sayu for short. I understand that my name is, um, a bit of a hassle."
Immediately, Arthur turned to look at the king.
"What the heck is a little girl doing on the team? Don't give me any 'she's 30 years old' bullshit or I'm going to kill everything in this kingdom."
The king laughed, taking Arthur's mildly true statement as a joke.
"Pay little attention to her. Her father and I are quite good friends, and so he's sent her as a way to level her up, as she's got a Talent with plenty of potential."
"Aren't we supposed to fight the demon king, or whatever that is? Why would he send a child on a mission, regardless of how much 'potential' she has?" Responded Arthur.
"Well, he wanted a boy instead. However, if she can level up a lot, or at least survive, then she's earned her right to remain in the family."
If Damien were there instead of Arthur, there would have perhaps been a lot of pushback. Yet, Arthur was not Damien.
He didn't care all that much anyways, and was mostly going with the flow to eventually die.
Arthur looked at the girl, who seemed to not be phased by the words spoken by the king. Arthur looked away and it was announced that they would leave at noon.
After using the bathroom and getting ready, the party set out.
They took the carriage by horse, and all sat inside.
Of course, since they had just met, things weren't extremely buddy buddy, but someone like Raiden was able to ease that.
"So, guys, which of us do you think is the strongest?"
Such was the topic which mattered most to Raiden. He himself didn't care exactly about "strength" or being the "strongest." But he pursued growth above all else, and fighting the strongest person was bound to provide at least some benefit.
"Well," began Rugsibar. "If I had to guess, it's either between me and Sylvia, or you, the heroes."
"Well, what can you all do? It's a good idea to learn each other's capabilities anyways, since we can make up for each others' strengths and weaknesses," said Raiden.
Sylvia was the first to speak up.
"I prioritize healing magic and nature magic. I'm not very skilled with weapons, as I'd consider myself more of a mage."
Healing magic would undoubtedly be a useful asset. Not to mention, nature magic was also quite useful, provided they were in the right area.
Then, came Rugsibar.
"I'm a weapons combatant. I prefer a longsword, but please don't rely on any blacksmithing business. My family has tons of good ones, but I never got it. I always preferred to be the one using the weapons, rather than makin' 'em."
Again, a fairly useful asset. Though Arthur was also a weapons guy, it wouldn't hurt to have two of them.
Raiden went up next.
"I use my trusty Dragonslayer, from my old world. I'm part dragon, so I can heal my wounds, but at the cost of my stamina. My Dragon Art allows me to channel lightning, produce it, stockpile it, and whatnot. Basically, I can do most things lightning related."
Then, it was Arthur's turn.
"Hm?" Hummed Sylvia, seeing Arthur in the corner, hugging his knees to his chest. He'd healed his face to avoid the pain, but that didn't change much. Arthur still was quite ugly-looking, and the hair he'd healed had already fallen out.
"Why are you sitting in the corner?" She asked. "Do you not feel included?"
"Yeah," Raiden said. "You look like an edgelord's character at the start of a tabletop game. 'I brood in the corner of the tavern while every other player character talks,' like c'mon man, you're not 14."
"Shut up."
"If you feel alone, you do not have to. We're your party members, we are going to be fighting the demon king together. It's no good to be alone, even when surrounded by people," Sylvia said.
'I can't blame them for not knowing. But I've already made my decision. I'm going to die here, I don't care about any of that other stuff.'
Though, ultimately, Arthur was still someone with a weak heart. He obliged, to avoid making things awkward and being an even worse burden.
He sat next to Raiden, as they were the two prophesied heroes.
"I can form objects from blood, even if it's not my own. Big things, like dragons or giants, are good for me to fight, since the more blood I take, the stronger weapons and general stuff I can create. As well, the strength of the victim matters."
"Oh! That's useful," Sylvia said, smiling and nodding her head. "If that's the case, then that can be reeaally useful. You can provide weapons for Rugsibar to use, armor for us, and I'm assuming you're also a dragon, like Raiden, so that means I don't have to worry about healing you until necessary, making it a lighter burden on me."
"I guess so," Arthur mumbled.
Arthur then looked over at Sayu, as did everyone else. Suddenly met with the spotlight, the girl began to sweat, but spoke with a continued cocky expression.
"I'm not really talented at weapons, and, um, I can't use magic, obviously. I'm also only level 50, but… dad said I shouldn't tell anyone my ability, because if they know it, they…"
"They'll what?" Sylvia asked.
"They'll use me for themselves, and I'll be even more of a burden to dad."