"TAP… TAP," A high-ranking Demon soldier rushed into the throne room of a dark, black castle. "JLEGER," a clap of thunder roared, and bright lightning was visible outside the windows between the tall pillars. The soldier immediately knelt before the throne, which was made of iron sculpted with the skeletons of humans and various other races. A handsome, red-eyed man was sitting casually on the throne with one foot propped up.
Five women—a Succubus, a Half-Orc, a Beastkin, a Lich, and a Merman—sat surrounding the throne, circling the Dragon King. The soldier immediately bowed his head before the man.
"Report, Your Majesty, our fortress is ready to depart immediately. All preparations are complete," the soldier said.
"Good. Finally, after all this time waiting, it is now time for us to show the world our true strength. We depart now. We will end the endless war gnawing at this world and strike down our true enemies. It is time for us to turn this annoying world upside down," the King yelled, raising his hand.
"Yes, Your Majesty, ready to execute," the soldier said.
Without delay, the soldier immediately stood and quickly walked out of the throne room. Not long after, "GROAAAS," the earth split open, forming a deep chasm, accompanied by a massive tremor that shook the world. The huge, terrifying-looking castle, along with its city and surrounding fortress on the ground, began to float up with its island into the sky.
Light began to stream into the throne room, revealing the King's face, which was smiling, yet mighty. It turned out his body was that of a huge Dragon with armor-like gray scales, wearing martial arts attire, though only the pants.
He looked down. Below his throne was a platform that looked like a space command deck with many people seated at their respective stations to control the flying castle.
"The Nordrom Flying Fortress is airborne, Your Majesty," said the soldier, who was actually the captain of the flying fortress, reporting.
"Excellent. Advance," the King said, waving his palm.
"Yes, for Nordrom!" everyone shouted.
The flying fortress began to move forward toward the border region where human armies had already entered his territory. Dash stood up and stretched his arms, then turned to face the five women who instantly smiled behind him.
"My wives, Shel (Half-Orc), Marle (Snow Wolf Beastkin), Lilin (Succubus), Talia (Lich), and Arvia (Merman), come here," Dash said, smiling.
The five women who were called immediately stepped forward toward Dash, who embraced all of them at once.
"Let's show the world our power. The five of you are my generals," Dash said.
"Yes, my husband," Shel, Lilin, Talia, Marle, and Arvia said in unison, with wide smiles on their faces.
Dash then turned, still hugging his five wives, watching the flying fortress navigate the continent visible on the large screen in front of him. A wide smile was visible on Dash's face; his eyes were sharp, fixed on the screen, and he was ready to destroy anyone who blocked his path.
***
Well, before continuing, let me first explain who Dash really is. My name is Dashiell Brown, but my family usually called me Dash. I was 22 years old, and after saving a little kid who was playing in the park and ran into the street, I saved him and got hit by a car, then a truck, and since I was thrown onto the train tracks right before a train passed, I was finally hit by the train.
Quite a complete package, wasn't it? So, I was sure I died successfully. However, my conviction was wrong. I came back to life and was completely changed. Everyone who saw me immediately ran, screamed, recorded me using their smartphones, and so on. Then, while I was confused, I suddenly jumped worlds for no clear reason.
Why was I changed, and how was I still alive even after being hit by a train? It all started when I was eight years old. I had absolutely no idea or memory of what caused all this, because from birth until I was eight, everything was fine. I was raised by my father and mother, but when I was six, my father died in a car accident.
My mother raised me and my younger sister, who was only two years younger than me, all by herself. Mom even had to work three jobs to meet our daily and monthly needs, plus the tuition fees for me and my sister. So here's the thing: when I was eight, two years after my father died, I felt something strange about myself.
Every time I woke up in the morning, I always felt exhausted, and it was very disturbing. I sometimes fell asleep in class, felt weak during sports, and often visited the nurse's office. My physical condition felt like it had plummeted drastically, and of course, my academic performance was affected too.
Mom once took me to the doctor, but there was nothing wrong with my body because when I was checked, I was perfectly healthy and fit. The first six months were truly miserable, but by the seventh month, I was able to adjust. My grades went back up, and I could concentrate. My mother felt relieved, but there was a new change: my appetite was huge, and every day I could eat up to five times the portion of an adult consuming a lot of calories.
Plus, my friends started avoiding me. Why? Because my body was incredibly muscular and broad for no clear reason, even though I never exercised at all. I didn't know the reason myself, nor did my mother. When we asked the doctor again, he just shook his head and said my development was normal. I didn't understand it at all.
And there was one more strange thing: my younger sister was somehow afraid of me. She said she kept hearing loud noises in my room every night. Once, she walked into my room and saw me doing intense physical exercises while I was asleep. She told me and my mother this repeatedly, until every night she asked to sleep with Mom and didn't want a room next to mine.
Because my sister kept saying the same thing about me every day, my mother became curious. One day, she went upstairs and entered my room in the middle of the night, but when she opened the door, I looked like I was just sleeping, so it seemed fine.
Mom asked my sister again, but my sister insisted she was telling the truth. Mom, who didn't want to blame my sister or think she was lying, finally asked for help from her own brother, my uncle, who worked in the army. When my uncle came and saw me, he was shocked because my body looked like a soldier who had undergone intense training every day.
He immediately asked me many questions, like how I trained, what I did, and so on. Of course, I didn't understand anything. Eventually, my uncle became confused and dropped the matter. He actually told my mother that I was very healthy and had a great physique.
Finally, my issue was no longer a big deal for my mother and sister. They both slept on the first floor, and I was alone on the second. I continued going to school as usual, but I had absolutely no friends. The teachers and school staff were happy to see me; they thought I had great discipline and consistency to be able to train my body that way.
But my classmates? They thought I was a weird kid or an excessive muscle freak, even though I honestly didn't know anything about it or why I had become this way. What was happening to me was finally exposed when I was 13 and about to enter middle school.
At that time, my body was already like that of a 17-year-old teenager. I was taller and stood out from my friends. My body was incredibly muscular and solid. I was even mistaken for a veteran who constantly failed a grade, even though my age was actually the same as everyone else.
Seeing this strangeness, this time my mother called my uncle on my father's side. As soon as he saw me, he immediately examined me because my uncle, who was my father's older brother, was a doctor. He also said that my father had experienced something similar to me, although his change was not as extreme as mine. Out of curiosity, he secretly installed a surveillance camera in my room while I was at school.
That camera finally revealed everything. A week after my uncle installed the camera in my room, he came back to our house, and this time his face was pale. Without saying anything, he showed me, my mother, and my sister what the camera had recorded in my room.
When I saw the playback, my eyes went wide. It turned out I was sleepwalking, and not only that, I was doing extremely strenuous physical training, plus practicing very extreme martial arts. My mother covered her mouth with wide eyes, while my sister looked like she was seeing a ghost, though she finally said, "I told you so."
The next day, I was taken to the hospital where my uncle practiced to be examined, and the results were truly shocking. It turned out there was mixed activation in my brain. In the area where I should have been sleeping, I actually had its own activity, and when I was awake, my sleep area was genuinely resting.
In other words, I never actually slept. It was like another identity was controlling my body when I was asleep, because I didn't remember anything at all and only found out when I was shown the recording. My uncle said that when I lost my father, I might have experienced deep emotional stress or trauma, and that became the trigger for my current sleep condition.
My uncle suggested therapy for me and offered to pay for it. So, for a year, I underwent therapy, but there were no results. I kept waking up in the middle of the night and doing extreme activities. Sometimes I even left the room and went somewhere, and according to the outside surveillance cameras, I was jogging outside the house.
When I was 17, I gave up on therapy. I had been doing it for four years, even switching therapists, but it still didn't work. I was eating more and more, which was a burden on my mother, so I started working so I could find my own place when I graduated high school and went to college without burdening my mother.
My mother also kept looking for a cure, even taking me to a mystic expert who was either genuine or a fake, though he had a practice license. The diagnosis was even crazier: one day he'd say I was possessed by something supernatural, and the next he'd say I was cursed for disturbing something or whatever. Who knows which was true.
Since it clearly wasn't working, Mom also took me to church for an exorcism and everything else, but the result was the same: I still trained, and sometimes I could even be seen meditating for hours without moving, and sometimes I looked like I was floating in the air, though not far from the ground. I was becoming something terrifying without realizing it at all.