"You fucker, how does it feel?!"
Inside of a garage a group of 12 men stood around another who was sat limp against a beam.
The scrawny man who yelled at him, swung a thick bat into the man's rib, a crisp snapping sound following it as the man grunted in pain covering his torso.
He was kicked in the head by one, grabbed by another and kicked in the balls by the next. Relentlessly, the group pummeled him until he was sprawled out on the floor, his face busted up and puffy.
"Padro, get the gas. I'm finish with this fucker." Hearing the order, one of the men grabbed a canister of gasoline from the workbench and begand soaking the man on the ground in it's contents.
"Heads up, this'll burn like hell."
*skch*
"AUGHHHHH!!" He released a wail of suffering as the fire spread relentlessly.
"Let's go."
'Damn it, I never thought I'd be going out like this over a single fucking fight.' His thoughts ran silent for a bit as he realized he wasn't feeling the pain he expected. Everything was quite and nothing seemed to be moving.
He tried to raise himself up, but found he had no control over his body.
"I thought someone like you would have more to monologue about. I must say, that was pretty boring." An old man in a fedora and black suite stood over the once dying man's body. His eyes looking down with amusement.
"Who are you supposed to be?"
"Someone who can get a bottle of Absolute in your hand, if you pay the price."
"Ohh, I'm hallucinating again. Even at a time like this? Guess my life didn't have much in stock anyway." With a heavy sigh, the man was able to put his hand out as he spoke.
"Just give me that bottle."
"DEAL!"
In that moment time resumed and the pained wails began anew. The flames on his body seemed to be flaring unnaturally and chaotically as he rolled around holding his face.
Within the flames his skin burned off along with the tissue and fat that covered his bones.
"The fuck? Hey, put that damn fire out!" The leader of their group shouted.
"We don't have enough water for that shit!"
The group was in such a panic about the huge fire around the man, they failed to register the fact his screams stopped. He wasn't flailing around. And the burning skull that looked back at them was sentient.
"Haaaa…Haaaa…Haaaa"
"What the fuck…"
The flaming entity leaned its body side to side, releasing a low, growl-like breath.
"S-Shit let's get outta here!" They all quickly turned towards the garage door, but froze in horror when they saw the figure already there.
"Head's up, this'll burn like hell!" The entity threw his hands into the air and a sea of flames erupted from his body!
The explosion was heard from blocks away and the fire that was left behind raged on for hours. In the end, the charred bones of 12 men was discovered at the scene and the only trace they had of a suspect was the molten shoeprints left in the concrete.
…..
[The Next Morning]
ring~
"Morning Adrian, I don't suppose you'd want the usual this early?" Adrian smirked as he sat down in his usual seat at the counter.
Adrian was a regular at this bar, usually coming in at nights after a work day. He was here weekdays and weekends, so by now every staff rotation got to know him pretty well.
The middle aged- tall guy that just came in, drank buy himself and tipped every time he left. That was Adrian. The Silent Drunk.
"I think I'll take a whole bottle of Absolute today, Misty."
"What's the occasion?" She asked, kneeling down and pulling a 1L clear bottle from the cabinet.
"Hmmm, I'm not sure." He replied with an amusing smile.
"Either I'm going senile or my life is forever changed. Either way, I think I'm just going to live life now, ya know?" Misty gave him a weird look, having never heard his be so chatty on a regular shift.
He took his wallet from his black jacket and handed Misty $200.
"That extra $75 is for you of course." He added.
"You should invest in a bank account." She cooly replied seeing his wallet could barely close.
"Funny you should say that. I've been thinking a lot about what you were talking about the night before."
He popped the top off of the bottle and took 3 big gulps, drowning the bar in silence as its early morning customers looked at him woth surprise or respect.
"You mean the whole living off radar thing? I was just kidding, how do you think you could do that?"
Adrian took another gulp of alcohol before speaking, "It's all about money, I bet I can do it!"
There was a silence for a while before Misty replied.
"Well, either way, just live happily." She watched as Adrian took another drunken gulp and sighed.
"I hope you're enjoying that bottle."
Time froze but the moment itself wasn't something that startled Adrian as he simply peeked at the old man from last night while finishing his bottle.
"So am I crazy or am I crazy."
"Well…you tell me." The old man replied. Looking at how he smirked with his arms spread open, Adrian was conflicted but also knew if what happened last night was indeed real then his whole life is forever changed.
"Still having doubts are we? Well I guess a man with your history would be." He sat next to Adrian at the bar and looked at the empty bottle of Absolute in front of him.
"You won't get much value out of that anymore." He joked.
At this time Adrian was stuck simply looking at the man unable to spit out the many questions he had or rather he didn't know which one to ask first.
"Well regardless of your doubts, we made a deal last night and as you can see I've honored my end of the bargain." He paused and his eyes flashed with a golden light as his voice deepened.
"Now it's time you honored yours."
Adrian snapped out of his stupor and got out from his seat.
"Who..What even are you?! You can do all of this, but you need some dysfunctional human? To do what? Why? I didn't even know where real at the time, what contract was made while I wasn't in the right mind?!"
The old man smiled wild as his eyes darkened!
"But Adrian you WERE in the right state of mind. The most perfect state of mind, FOR ME, that is. Listen boy, in hell who cares about the semantics." He stood up and placed a hand on Adrian's shoulder.
"I need a rider. You need meaning and certainty. Well here it is, your one and only meaning will be collected souls of the damned. Delivering vengeance for the souls that weep out for justice against the unjust."
"…" Adrian froze in place simply shook by what he was hearing. Not only did it sound simply ridiculous, cool and dangerous, it sounded like every delusion he faced before.
He moved the old man's hand off his shoulder and sat back down at the bar, muttering shit about the whole encounter not being real and regretting giving misty that $200.
"Fine. Like it or not you are MY Spirit Of Vengeance."
Time resumed and Adrian snapped his head to his left and saw that the man was nowhere to be seen. He picked up the bottle of alcohol and chugged the rest wincing at the burn that followed.
With a heavy he pulled on the collar of his shirt as he started feeling the heat of the liquid finally washing over him. His body burned up as if he was sitting in a 200° sauna.
"WHAT THE HELL, FIRE!!" A customer screamed out and pointed at Adrian's shoes that had fire around them and it was spreading across the carpet beneath him!
"EXTINGU-AUUUGHHH!!"
Misty and her coworkers hurriedly grabbed the extinguisher, but staggered as they saw Adrian curled over on the floor being smoldered in fire!
With haste Misty's coworker yanked her by the arm and dragged her outside of the building! They all watched as Adrian screamed in pain but still got to his feet! Throwing bottles and stumbling around the bar.
Everyone was unsure but it looked like at some point he went and grabbed another bottle and drank it amiss the fiery hell.
Sirens rang out as he stepped from the burning building and the crowed reacted accordingly with screams and cries of horror.
"Huuuuuuu….Haaaa." A being with a flaming skull stood outside inhaling air and exhaling low flames.
"Haaa the wretched smell of sin!" Saying that, he looked over at a car parked on the curb and walked over to it just as police and fire fighters arrived on scene.
A 2025 Camaro ZL1. Supercharged V8, 650hp. A monster on the tracks.
"YOU, BACK AWAY FROM THE VEHICLE!"
Adrian- or what used to be Adrian, turned his head with a silent inhale. He pointed at the officer using the car's speaker and pointed at him with his skeletal finger.
"Leachurous assaulter of women and a black heart of lies! GUILTY!!"
At his word the officer combusted into flames on the spot as he was burned to ash.
"OPEN FIRE!!"
Shots rang out but they held no effect as he turned towards the car and opened the door as the vehicle became smothered and transformed by flames.
The vehicle was reborn with molten vein-like crafts as if soul fire pulsed over its body. The grill had become a fang-lined maw that constantly exhaled steams of infernal flames.
Headlights now became predatory eyes fixed on the guilty with blazing wheels that would take it there.
As The Rider got inside the vehicle it roared with flames as he stomped on the gas pedal headed straight for the multitude of officers that had arrived on scene!
As they all ran to avoid the impact, the infernal vehicle simply phased through them and every building in its way as it sped off. The sound of its engine giving notice of judgment even before the rider arrived.
...
Chapter 1 End
Author Notes: Hey everyone and thanks for reading so far. Just wanted to give a heads up that I do this for fun so there won't ever be a true schedule. I type and upload when I feel like it.
As the title suggests this will be a multiverse story so give me some suggestions even though I have a few in mind. It can be a comic, a book, manga/anime/movies or even Wuxi stories.
What I have planned for now tho:
Akame Ga Kill
JJK
Solo Leveling
Chainsaw Man
There's no order yet, so you all can either vote or leave it to me. I'm aiming for 10-15 chapters per world as a base but I'm sure some will have more.
You can expect between 1600-2300 words of story per chapter(meaning excluding author notes)
Anyways thanks and cya next time!