As an Abomination, Derek had no muscles that could spasm, but he didn’t know that. He fell on the ground only because the impact took him by surprise and he waited for the seizure for a few seconds before realizing nothing was going to happen.
“What the fuck? They have wands instead of guns here. This is definitely not the Earth of the past. If I have traveled through time instead of space, this is some weird future where magic replaced technology.” Derek said while watching the darkness of his body eating at the remnants of the spell.
“Interesting. My current form seems to be immune to electricity. Let’s see what else it can do.”
The Void shot chore magic bullets of all elements against his hand, but they all phased through the Voidfeather armor.
“Dammit!” He used a lightning bolt on himself to confirm his theory. “I may be immune to some elements, but to all of them is out of the question. The only thing I know for sure is that I’m immune to my own magic.
“It’s the only explanation for my lightning to behave differently from the carriage guy’s. Also, if this is anything like a video game, being immune to one thing means I’m vulnerable to another.
“The questions are: how can there be humans on this planet and, if the guy who summoned me here was so powerful, how come those people didn’t recognize me? They just called me a monster.” After saying it out loud, a new mystery arose.
“Wait a second. This is just like with the tiger man. I understand what they say but they don’t speak English. How is that possible?” Derek thought about chasing the merchants and asking them a few questions, but he decided otherwise.
Without Gravity Magic, every step he made while running left behind a crater and boomed like thunder, making his approach as discreet as an incoming thunderstorm on a clear sky.
“I’d better let them relax and think they’ve lost me. After all, I just need to follow the road to find them again. Now I’d rather focus on the language barrier.”
Derek replayed the conversation with Strider and the quick exchange with the merchants in his mind. He listened to their words and repeated them out loud, remembering their nuances and the differences with their English equivalent.
“Wife.” He repeated in Tyris’ universal language and the image of a cute woman with long black hair came to his mind.
A strong headache quickly followed, forcing him to hold his head while trying not to faint out of pain. Too many images to count flashed before his eyes where Kamila smiled, held Lith’s hand, or kissed him.
Every one of those moments made his non-existent heart tighten, filling him with sadness and longing. When the memories faded, Derek felt a void in his chest only matched by the suffering it caused.
“Kami.” He said while finally another of the chained words made sense. “This woman must have seduced the evil overlord before betraying him. She must have stolen one of the missing pieces of my soul.”
It was the only plausible explanation Derek could think of since the idea of having friends was preposterous, let alone the thought of opening his heart to someone.
‘No, you idiot! It was offered, not taken by force.’ The Voidfeather did his best to make the Void associate Kamila’s name with the word wife instead of such a ridiculous story, but to no avail. ‘Better than nothing, I guess.’
As Derek replayed the few words of Mogarian he had heard, something clicked inside his mind. He still thought in English but with a bit of focus and a few stutters, he managed to translate his words into Tyris’ universal language.
“Weird.” He tried and failed to conjure the holographic panel. “I didn’t get any prompts, quests, or notifications even after unlocking a new language.”
The more he thought about it, the less his situation made sense.
His train of thought came to a halt when the hunger returned. His stomach couldn’t grumble, but his whole body ached more as the mana he consumed for his experiments depleted his energy reserves.
Yet with the sun still high, he wasn’t supposed to feel so bad after practicing mere tier one spells and Ragnarök’s still bore no traces of black. It took him a few seconds to understand the source of his discomfort.
There was a delicious smell wafting through the air that stimulated his never-ending appetite. The smell of freshly spilled blood.
For a moment, the Void thought something might have happened to the couple of merchants but the smell came from the opposite direction. Too hungry and curious to ask himself more questions, he followed the scent of blood for a few kilometers that he covered in quick strides.
“Man, if I’m dumb.” He chuckled as he got close enough to understand what was happening. “Middle Ages also means no CCTV or phones. A road like this is a thug’s wet dream.”
There was a carriage to the side of the highway and one of its wheels was damaged. Whether by accident or design, it was impossible to tell. The only thing Derek knew for certain was that three rough-looking men were harassing its occupants.
One of them was searching the carriage for valuables, one was keeping an eye on the road for trouble and the last one was messing with a young family. The man lay on the ground in fetal position and in a pool of his own blood.
He was the source of the delicious smell that had lured the Void. The woman, a slightly attractive youth barely in her twenties, was being stripped down with deliberate slowness.
A kid, maybe four years old, stood by his father, shaking him and sobbing hysterically.
From so up close the Void could ignore the blood and smell the ozone. His eyes caught the burnt marks on the man, woman, and child, drawing a clear picture that was confirmed a second later.
As the woman tried to defend herself, the thug electrocuted her with a tier one lightning.
“He must have played with them until the husband somehow resisted or dodged the spell and got stabbed for it.” Derek said out loud, practicing Tyris’ language.
“Watch out! A monster is coming our way!” The sentinel screamed, causing his associates to scoff and laugh rather than worry.
At least until they turned around and the mere shockwave caused by the Void’s charge coming to a halt sent tumbling. The thugs decided that the meager belongings of the travelers weren’t worth their lives.
They rolled back to their feet and ran for their horses, leaving their victims behind as monster chow. The bandits jumped on the saddles and kicked the beasts’ sides for a full gallop. Yet no sound came from the hooves as the horses moved slowly and in the wrong direction, toward the monster.
“Damn if this is cool!” Derek wanted to feel excited at his telekinetic powers. He wanted to. Yet he couldn’t. “Spirit Magic is amazing let’s see what else it can do.”
For some reason, seeing the young couple angered him to the point that his eyes twitched and Ragnarök begged him to be released.
