"Oi Brats! We've got a mission from the Wizard King!" I heard Captain Yami yell. I've slowly been running out of self esteem as I barely come out of missions alive these days but I have to do this for the people at the church and for myself as well.
"Come on brat! Our wheel's running out of gas!" Yami demanded.
"I'm coming, and Finral-senpai, I'll treat you to a mixer if you manage to hold the portal a little longer." I said as Finral's face went from a gloomy look to a very happy one.
It seems that he always fall for it but I always feel guilty afterwards so I arrange a mixer anyways.
We arrive at the dungeon for it to only look like a spacial magic portal.
"Yami-teichō, why is there a portal here?" Finral asked Yami who look at the gate with an uneasy look.
"I'm not quite sure wheels, but we gotta clear the dungeon."
It wasn't a normal sight to see, Yami-teichō feeling uneasy meant trouble most of the time so all of us were hesitant at moving forward. They were about to enter the portal when it suddenly blocked them from entering, it was as if a wall was there.
"We seem to have a problem here..." Yami said, his face was all serious so we knew that it was something very problematic, well that was until I went to touch it, but instead of beibg blocked, my hand went through it.
"Yami-teichō, I think the portal only accepts magicless people." I said still looking at the portal that has engulfed my hand.
I was waiting for Yami's go sign but he looked worried for some reason. I wasn't expecting that expression to pop up on his face as he was always a goofy person.
"Don't enter it, Asta." It was his first time calling me by my name, I was quite surprised by this as he always called me a brat but now he was being serious.
"Right..." I said as I tried pulling my hand out but I couldn't.
"I can't pull it out captain." I said in a worried tone that was very noticable.
"What do you mean you can't?"
"I actually can't cap-"
I was cut off as the portal swirled more vigorously, it slowly turned purple as it was now pulling me in. The shade of purple was getting darker as it turned to red, it pulled me even closer, everyone tried to get near but couldn't as the magic barrier from the portal became bigger and stronger.
"Damn it! I knew that something like this was going to happen." Yami said to no one specifically.
"Go get Julius, Finral! Vanessa, go with him!" Yami ordered.
Everything happened so fast that a certain silver haired royal didn't have the time to process what just happened. He was gone.
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the portal, Asta stood there inside of a cave in front of a giant door.
" A dungeon inside a dungeon? That's unheard of." Asta thought whilst looking up at the huge door in front of him.
"They shouldn't be able to come in so I might as well get inside this one." Asta thought out loud as he stepped forward and opened the door. What he saw behind the door made him question what the dungeon really was. There were statues 10 times bigger than him and extremely huge one sitting at a chair. In the center was a seal and a statue holding some sort of ancient writing. He read it as if it was his first language but that wasn't what bothered him, it was the contents of the writings.
'Worship the Lord.'
'Praise the Lord.'
'Prove your Faith.'
He felt chilly just reading it with his eyes so he said the remainder of what is written out loud to not feel lonely.
"Those who do not follow these commandments, will NEVER return alive."
Saying the last bit sent a very uneasy feeling down his spine. The air became even more chilly than it used to as the ground started rumbling. He looked up at the giant statue at the end of the room and noticed it's eyes glowing, Asta quickly ducked to avoid the beam of magic while trying his best to think of a solution.
'Worship the Lord, to worship the Lord, you bow down to it!' Asta thought while he quickly shifted his position to a bowing one. The rumbling finally stopped, he gives off a sigh of relief before looking up, what he saw next made him tense up even more than before. The completely immovable statue was now smiling at him. The statue stood up still staring at Asta as it walked towards him, Asta was processing everything until he remembered the second commandment, 'Praise the Lord'.
He quickly moved away while thinking of ways to praise someone -or in his case- a God. Rituals popped into his head first but a one man ritual for such a god would be dumb so he thought of it some more. Music came into his head but how can he play music when he only has swords? He looks around the place and sees four statues in four completely different directions, each of them holding an instrument. He went to one and it started to play it's instrument. Asta was so glad it worked because if it didn't, then he should've been dead. He was about to run towards the next one but was cut off as an Axe was slammed in front of him.
'So this is how it is.' Asta thought to himself as he pulled out his demon-slayer sword. He ran once again but this time using his sword to block some attacks from the statues. He succesfully did three and was about to do the last one but was quickly cut off by a shield. He thought he was done for at that very moment but was proven wrong when he finally heard music. It was surprisingly calming but that wasn't the thing he should be worried about, he should be worried about his right leg being cut off by the shield.
'If only Mimosa was here...' Asta thought as he took off his coat and wrapped it around his leg to stop the bleeding. He thought that it was done but he was wrong, the ground started rumbling once again as the seal at the center of the room began to rise up.
"An altar?" He questioned as he looked at the center of the room.
'Worship the Lord, Praise the Lord...
Prove your Faith.'
Asta got it now, he was going to sacrifice himself. 'At least it's only me and not someone from the Black Bulls' Asta thought as he grew a sad smile in his face. He slowly crawled to the altar as his life flashed right before his eyes slowly.
"So this is what death must feel like." Asta said as he propped himself up at the altar. The statues began moving toward him as well as the big one. That looked down on him, the same sinister smile still plastered at it's face. All the statues brought their weapons up, ready to strike 'the sacrifice'. Asta looked up one last time before closing his eyes.
'If only I had one more chance!' He shouted in his head as he waited for the excrutiating pain from all the strikes he was about to receive, but it never came. He opened his eyes to see time has been frozen in place whilst a wide screen popped up in front of him.
[YOU HAVE COMPLETED ALL THE NECESSARY REQUIREMENTS OF THE SECRET QUEST "COURAGE OF THE WEAK"]
'What the heck is this!?' Asta thought.
[YOU HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO BECOME A PLAYER. DO YOU ACCEPT?]
'Earned? Earned what? And what does it mean by accept?'
[YOU DO NOT HAVE MUCH TIME REMAINING.]
[IF YOU REFUSE, YOUR HEART WILL STOP IN APPROXIMATELY 1 SECOND. WILL YOU ACCEPT?]
'If I accept this, then I won't die?'
'This is the only chance I'll ever have.'
'And if that's the case...'
"I ACCEPT."
[WELCOME, PLAYER.]
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To be continued...
