Standing before that impossible vault door, covered in symbols I had created for a fictional lore, I came to a disturbing realization: brute force wasn't going to solve this mystery.
I could probably blast the door open – the magic flowing through me felt limitless – but that would likely destroy whatever lay beyond it.
And something told me I needed those answers intact.
"We're going about this backwards," I said, stepping away from the glowing runes. "I've been thinking like a gamer – see obstacle, apply maximum force, move to next objective. But this isn't a dungeon crawl."
"My Lord?" Saras asked, though I could see understanding already dawning in her silver-flecked eyes.
"Knowledge, Saras. That's what we need. Someone who can read these texts, decipher these symbols, tell us what the hell is actually going on in this world." I gestured at the vault door. "Someone who was specifically designed to unlock secrets."
"Meidina," she said simply.
"Exactly. The nerd we need for the job we've got."
I turned away from the vault – it had waited centuries, it could wait a few more hours – and headed back toward the upper levels. "Come on. Let's find somewhere suitable for a proper summoning. And this time, I'm going to do it right."
We climbed back through the ruins, past the murals that showed my face in scenes of ancient glory and catastrophe, past the library with its glowing books and responsive architecture.
I was looking for somewhere that felt... appropriate. Ceremonial. The ritual chamber where I'd awakened was too small and still reeked of dead cultists.
But there had to be somewhere in this complex that was designed for major magical workings.
"There," I said, stopping in front of an archway I'd barely noticed during our initial exploration. Now, though, I could feel power emanating from beyond it like heat from a forge. "That's the place."
The chamber beyond was circular and vast, easily fifty feet across, with a domed ceiling that stretched up into darkness.
The floor was carved with an intricate pattern of interlocking circles and geometric designs, all converging on a raised dais in the center.
Symbols covered every surface, not the crude scrawlings of recent cultists, but elegant script that seemed to flow like water across the ancient stone.
"This is where the original builders conducted their most important rituals," I said, walking to the center of the chamber. The moment my feet touched the dais, every symbol in the room flared with golden light.
"My Lord," Saras said carefully, "are you certain this is wise? If the summoning draws unwanted attention..."
"Then we'll deal with it," I said, settling cross-legged on the dais. "But Saras, look at this place. Look at those symbols, the way they respond to me. This entire complex was built for someone like me. It wants to be used."
She nodded, though I could see the concern in her expression. "I'll guard the entrance. If anything goes wrong—"
"You'll improvise brilliantly," I finished. "You always do."
I closed my eyes and reached out with senses I still didn't fully understand, feeling for that familiar presence.
In the game, Meidina had been my information specialist; the NPC who provided exposition, decoded ancient texts, and maintained the vast libraries of forbidden knowledge.
I designed her as brilliant but shy, powerful but uncertain, a scholar who found confidence only in her area of expertise.
Her presence felt like old books and candlelight, like whispered secrets and the weight of accumulated wisdom.
When I found her, floating in whatever space existed between dimensions, I began the summoning.
"Meidina Scrollweaver," I called, power building around me like a gathering storm. "Keeper of the Legion of Forbidden Scrolls, Master of Lost Languages and Guardian of Hidden Truths, I call you forth to serve at my side."
This summoning was different from Saras's arrival. Where my Knight-Captain had stepped through a simple dimensional rift, Meidina's summoning was something grander.
The chamber itself seemed to participate, every carved symbol blazing with light, the very air humming with harmonics that made my bones vibrate.
"Whoa," I said, feeling the magic surge beyond anything I'd experienced. "This is definitely not lag-free casting. This is more like... reality having a small seizure."
The stone beneath me began to vibrate, then shake, then actively buck like a living thing.
Dust rained from the ceiling as the entire ruin groaned under the pressure of the summoning. But somehow, I held it all together.
The power flowed through me like water through a riverbed, controlled and directed by instincts I didn't remember learning.
"Come on, Meidina," I muttered through gritted teeth. "Don't make me look bad in front of my Knight-Captain."
Reality folded in on itself with a sound like tearing silk, and through the dimensional gateway stepped...
"Oh," I breathed, opening my eyes.
Meidina was exactly as I'd designed her, but seeing her in person drove home just how otherworldly the character I'd created really was.
She was tiny – barely five feet tall – with pale skin that glowed from within like moonlight on snow. Her violet eyes were huge in her heart-shaped face, filled with depths of knowledge that seemed older than her apparent age. Silver hair fell in waves past her shoulders, and delicate dragon-like horns curved back from her temples. Her robes were dark blue silk covered in script that moved and shifted as I watched, words appearing and disappearing as if the fabric itself was alive with text.
But what really struck me was her expression. Where Saras had appeared confident and battle-ready, Meidina looked... overwhelmed.
She stood in the center of the summoning circle, those enormous violet eyes wide with what looked like equal parts terror and fascination.
Then she saw me, and immediately dropped to her knees.
"Duke Dantalion, Great Duke of Hell, The Seventy-First Spirit, The All-Knowing Duke, Sovereign of Secrets, Warden of the Pit's Library," she said in a rush, her voice barely above a whisper. "Master of the Thirty-Six Legions, He Who Teaches All Arts and Sciences, Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge and Guardian of Hidden Truth. I... I have answered your summons, my Lord. Command me."
I stared at her for a long moment, feeling my face heat with secondhand embarrassment.
In the game, I'd given Dantalion those titles because they sounded appropriately grandiose and demonic. But hearing them spoken aloud by someone who genuinely believed in them...
"That's," I said carefully, "that's a lot of titles, Meidina."
"I... yes, my Lord. Forgive me. I should have used the full ceremonial address, but there are another forty-seven titles in the complete version and I was nervous and—"
"Forty-seven more?" I interrupted, horrified. "What was I thinking when I wrote all that?"
She tilted her head, looking confused. "My Lord?"
"Never mind," I said quickly, standing and offering her my hand. "Just... Dantalion is fine. Or 'my Lord' if you insist on formality. But let's skip the epic poem of titles, okay?"
She took my hand with obvious relief, her skin warm despite its pale glow.
"Yes, my Lord. I apologize for my... enthusiasm. I was dreaming, and then you called, and suddenly I could think and feel and there was so much knowledge pressing at the edges of my mind..."
"It's alright," I said gently. "You're safe. You're real. And yes, there's definitely a lot to learn."
"Real," she repeated, wonder in her voice. "Yes, I can feel that. This is real in a way the dreams never were."
From across the chamber, Saras approached, her hand resting casually on her sword hilt. "My Lord, if I may?"
I nodded, recognizing the look in my Knight-Captain's eyes. She was going to test the new arrival, make sure Meidina was genuinely loyal and not some kind of infiltrator or trap.
It was exactly the kind of thorough security mindset I'd programmed into her character.
"You claim to serve our Lord," Saras said, stopping a few feet away from Meidina. "Prove it."
Meidina blinked, then straightened with visible effort.
When she spoke, her voice was stronger, more confident.
"I am Meidina Scrollweaver, first summoned of the Legion of Forbidden Scrolls. I was created by our Lord's will, shaped by his design, given purpose by his vision. I have served him across dimensions and through the spaces between dreams."
She looked directly at Saras, those violet eyes blazing with inner fire.
"I know the true name of every star in the void, the secret languages of creation and destruction, and the mathematical principles that govern the flow of time itself. I am his in mind, body, and soul, by choice and by design. Would you have me prove my loyalty by demonstrating my knowledge, or would you prefer I simply say 'I serve' and leave it at that?"
Saras studied her for a long moment, then nodded approvingly.
"Knowledge will suffice. Welcome, sister."
"Sister?" Meidina asked, looking confused.
"We all serve the same lord," Saras said simply. "That makes us family."
I watched the exchange with a mixture of pride and unease.
The loyalty was obviously genuine – I could see it in the way both women carried themselves, the absolute certainty in their voices when they spoke of serving me.
But it was also a heavy responsibility.
These weren't NPCs following programming anymore.
They were real people who had chosen to follow me, and their faith in my leadership was both humbling and terrifying.
"Right then," I said, clapping my hands together. "Now that the loyalty tests are complete, let's get to work. Meidina, I need information about this world. Starting with the basics – who's in charge, what's the political situation, and why does everyone seem to think demons are myths?"
Her eyes lit up – literally, with tiny sparks of violet flame dancing in her irises.
"Research," she said, and for the first time since her summoning, she sounded truly excited. "Oh, my Lord, this place is extraordinary. I can feel the knowledge calling to me from every surface. The books in the library are practically singing with information, and these wall carvings..." She gestured around the chamber. "They're not just decoration. They're a repository of living knowledge."
"Then let's go," I said. "Show me what you can find."
The three of us made our way back to the library, where Meidina immediately gravitated toward the ancient texts like iron filings to a magnet.
She approached the first shelf with the kind of reverence most people reserved for religious artifacts, her hands hovering over the books without quite touching them.
"May I, my Lord?" she asked.
"They're all yours," I said. "Just... try not to blow anything up."
She smiled at that – the first genuine smile I'd seen from her. "I make no promises."
The moment her fingers made contact with the first book, it blazed with golden light.
Script flowed across its covers like liquid fire, and I could see knowledge flowing between the tome and my summoned scholar. Her eyes widened, then began to glow with the same violet radiance as the moving text on her robes.
"Oh," she breathed. "Oh my."
"Good 'oh my' or bad 'oh my'?" I asked.
"Complicated 'oh my,'" she said, already reaching for another book. "My Lord, this world... it's not what I expected."
Over the next hour, I watched Meidina work with the kind of focused intensity that made me remember why I'd designed her as my information specialist.
She moved from book to book, map to map, scroll to scroll, each one responding to her touch by revealing secrets it had kept hidden for decades or centuries.
The living script on her robes grew brighter and more active as she absorbed more knowledge, and I started to understand that her clothing wasn't just decoration – it was a living library, storing and organizing everything she learned.
Finally, she stepped back from the shelves, her violet eyes blazing with accumulated knowledge.
"Report," I said.
She straightened, slipping into the same professional mode I'd seen from Saras.
"This world is called Aethros, my Lord. It's ruled by five major human kingdoms: Valeria in the north, Drakmoor in the east, the Sunset Principalities in the west, the Iron Confederacy in the south, and the Central Kingdom of Astoria, which considers itself first among equals."
"And the non-humans?"
Her expression darkened. "Enslaved, my Lord. Beastkin, elves, dwarves, orcs – anyone who isn't human is considered property under the law of all five kingdoms. There are scattered resistance movements, but they're poorly organized and constantly hunted."
"Lovely," I said dryly. "And demons?"
"Myths and legends, exactly as you suspected. The old stories speak of demon lords who once walked the earth, commanding great armies and building mighty empires. But that was supposedly thousands of years ago, and most humans believe the stories are just that – stories."
"Most humans?"
"The Churches of the Five Kingdoms maintain that demons are real but sealed away by divine power. They're constantly watching for signs of demonic activity, and they have... methods... for dealing with suspected demon worshippers."
I winced. "Let me guess. Involving fire and screaming?"
"Among other things, yes."
"And what about that?" I asked, gesturing toward a map that was glowing softly on the table beside her. "You said something about magic nodes?"
Meidina's eyes brightened again. "This is the fascinating part, my Lord. Look at this."
She spread out the map, which showed the continent of Aethros in remarkable detail. Scattered across the landscape were dozens of glowing points, connected by lines of light that formed a complex geometric pattern.
"These are points of power," she explained. "Places where the barriers between dimensions are thin, where magic flows more freely. In the old days, they were the sites of great cities, centers of learning and power. Now..." She shook her head sadly. "Most are ruins, abandoned or forgotten. The humans fear them."
I studied the map, noting how the pattern of connections seemed to flow toward certain central points. And there, in the hills where we currently sat, was one of the brightest nodes on the entire continent.
"We're sitting on a major convergence point," I said.
"Yes, my Lord. This location is one of the most magically significant sites in the known world. Which explains why it was chosen as the site for..." She gestured around the library. "All of this."
But that wasn't what made my blood run cold. It was the overall pattern of the magical network, the way the lines of power flowed and intersected. I'd seen this design before, spent months perfecting it in the game's lore documents.
It was the theoretical magical infrastructure I'd created for Dantalion's empire in Erevos Online. The network of power that would allow a demon duke to project his influence across an entire continent.
"Meidina," I said quietly, "in your research, did you find any references to previous demon lords? Ones who might have looked like me?"
She nodded slowly. "The oldest texts speak of the 'First Awakening' – a time when a great demon lord appeared in this world and began building an empire. The descriptions match your appearance almost exactly, my Lord. Golden eyes, pale skin, command over shadows and secrets."
"What happened to him?"
"The records are fragmentary, but it seems he vanished suddenly, leaving behind only ruins and legends. Some texts suggest he was banished. Others imply he chose to leave." She paused, then added quietly, "The timeline suggests it was approximately three thousand years ago."
Three thousand years. Long enough for an entire civilization to rise and fall, for history to become myth and myth to become half-remembered legend.
"My Lord?" Saras asked, noting my expression. "What troubles you?"
I stared at the map, at the network of power that matched my own designs, at the evidence that someone who looked exactly like me had once ruled this world and then abandoned it.
"I think," I said slowly, "I'm starting to understand why those cultists were able to summon me. This world wasn't just randomly compatible with our arrival." I looked up at both of my companions, these loyal, intelligent women who had chosen to follow me into an impossible situation. "I think this world was designed for us. Shaped to match the lore I created, the stories I wrote, the empire I imagined."
"By who?" Meidina asked.
"By another player," I said. "Someone else from Earth, someone else who played Erevos Online or something like it. Someone who got here first and tried to build the same kind of empire I'm building now."
The implications hung in the air between us. If I was right, then I wasn't the first person to be transported from Earth to this fantasy world. Someone had been here before me, someone with similar knowledge and similar power.
The question was: were they friend or foe?
And were they still here, watching from the shadows, waiting to see what I would do with the world they had prepared for me?
"Well," I said finally, "that's not ominous at all."
But despite the unsettling implications, I found myself smiling. Because looking at Meidina with her glowing eyes and living script, at Saras with her unwavering loyalty and tactical brilliance, at the ancient library responding to our presence like it had been waiting centuries for us to arrive...
I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, this was exactly where I was supposed to be.
Even if I had no idea what I was supposed to do about it.
To be continued...