Van walked toward the mutilated prince, his footsteps echoing in the silent chamber.
Behind him, Hicks could only stare.
Not at Van. At himself.
His trembling fingers kept touching his stomach, where the sword had been, where his intestines had spilled onto the stone floor just moments ago.
Now there was nothing except smooth skin. Warmth. Wholeness.
'A potion that healed me... with just a drop.'
He looked at the blood pooling beneath him. His blood. His organs were still on the floor. Slick and wrong against his palms.
And yet he himself felt better than he'd ever been.
'What kind of elixir... What kind of monster carries something like that?'
His eyes followed Van's back as the armored figure knelt beside the prince.
Van looked down at the dying, mutilated boy.
'He's barely breathing.'
He kneeled, holding the vial he used on Hicks.
A memory surfaced.
A woman's hand, gentle on the back of his head. Lifting him slightly. A spoon against his lips. Warm miso soup. Her voice, soft: "You have to sit up a little, Makoto. Or you'll choke."
'... Soon. Somehow.'
Van's gauntleted hand moved clumsily and slid beneath the prince's head. He lifted it gently. Tilted the vial against the prince's cracked lips.
The elixir flowed.
'After they're healed, I could ask them what's happening.'
He watched the liquid disappear.
'Then I'll see what this is all about.'
His eyes drifted to the corner of his vision, where the notifications had been piling up.
[YOU HAVE CONQUERED THE ABYSS!]
[UNBELIEVABLE ACHIEVEMENT!]
[IMPOSSIBLE ACHIEVEMENT!]
[You have become the Owner of the Abyss]
[New Skills are now available to you...]
[A new...]
'There's so many notifications...' Van sighed.
'I'll look into it later.'
He turned his attention back to the prince.
And froze.
The boy's golden hair seemed to glisten. His jaw softened. His cheekbones lifted. His shoulders narrowed.
The stumps of his arms were growing.
Bone first. white and glistening, then muscle wrapping around it like wet cloth, then skin flowing over everything.
Within seconds, the mutilated prince was gone.
In his place lay a girl.
'Huh.'
Van tilted his head.
'After I gave him the elixir he became a female. Was he—... She afflicted with a status effect that changed her appearance or something?'
'Or… Was she somehow changed to be a guy?"
He watched the limbs finish regenerating. Fingers flexing involuntarily. Toes curling.
Behind him, Hicks made a strangled sound.
"Im... possible..."
He was staring. Eyes wide. Face pale—though whether from blood loss or shock, it was hard to say.
'A miracle,' Hicks thought, his mind barely processing what he was seeing.
'That's... that's not healing. That's resurrection… That's divine-tier magic. That's...'
His eyes flicked between the armored figure and the princess.
'And he just... used it. Casually. On both of us.'
'What is he?'
The princess stirred.
'That aside, the prince is… a g-girl? What is the meaning of this!?' Hicks gulped.
Her eyelids fluttered. Her newly-formed hand rose as it shook, and reached toward Van's helmet.
Her fingers brushed the cold metal.
"D... addy..." she whispered.
Her deep and gray eyes opened fully.
For a moment, she just stared at the visor inches from her face.
"—!"
She shoved against his chest, grunting and panting with each push. Her arms trembling from the effort.
Van didn't flinch.
'... That's that.'
Slowly, he stood up and backed away
The princess scrambled against the floor, pressing herself against the chamber wall, chest heaving, eyes darting between him and Hicks.
"Y-your Highness, are you alri—" Hicks said as he stood up, hurriedly making his way toward her.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!! FUCKER!!!" She screamed, curling into a ball. I could hear her throat tearing from the effort.
Hicks stopped in his place, his eyes widening as he looked away.
"FUCKING TRAITOR!!! YOU… you…! You…" She shivered as she looked at herself. Her bosom bulging against her shirt. Her arms and fingers more delicate… Her feminine voice.
Her eyes widened, her face paled even more than it already was as sweat began to drip everywhere. Her hands shivered as she touched her body to confirm it was real.
"Y-your highness, I…" Hicks looked away, his chin twitching as he heard her voice cracking under strain.
Her head snapped, looking at the armored figure. Gulping.
Van merely blinked.
'I guess it's complicated. Oh well.'
He turned toward the gateway.
The massive doors—the ones that had been sealed for who knew how long—stood open now. Not to another circle. To outside.
Light poured through.
Real light.
'I… Did it, huh?'
Van walked toward it.
Hicks and the princess watched him go, neither able to speak.
He stepped through the threshold.
And stopped.
Wind.
'Wind. Like that place.'
It hit his armor first—a gentle pressure against the metal.
Then it found the gaps, the joints, the spaces between plates.
'... It feels like my original world, but…'
Before him, a clearing.
Grass. Actual grass swaying in that same breeze not too far from the dirt clearing.
Dirt, sun-kissed and warm under his metallic boots. Trees forming a semicircle around the dungeon's entrance, their leaves rustling with sounds he'd almost forgotten existed.
And above—
Sky.
Blue. Endless. Dotted with clouds that drifted lazily.
'... Cleaner.'
Van stood there.
Breathing.
'I'm out.'
He shook his head.
'I should learn about this world. And then… Kazuya.'
'I'll kill that fucker.'
He raised his arm and pointed forward, as he'd always done whenever he entered yet another Circle.
"My north is... that way."
Deciding which direction would be his anchor.
"Pfah. What're ye on about?! The sun sets that way."
A gruff voice from the side.
Van turned his head.
A dwarf stood at the edge of the clearing, arms folded, expression unimpressed. Stocky. Weathered and long-bearded. A leather apron stained with soot and oil. Hands thick with calluses.
'Master Vorn!' Hicks blinked as he looked at him from inside the dungeon, 'He looks completely unshaken… As if he expected this to happen.'
'As if he waited here for the gates to open this whole time…!'
"The sun rises from there." Vorn pointed at the dungeon.
"So the true north is my way, brat."
Van turned his head toward the dwarf.
A pause as he looked at him from head to toe.
"...Hm. You're right." Van replied flatly.
SEASON 1: END.
[Thanks for reading!]
[Season 2 is in the works <3]
Note from the Author:
Thank ya'll for reading! A lot of you who're into Light Novels and anime-styled stories could tell the beginning was… erghh, generic in some way.
Blah blah whole class gets transmigrated blah blah the childhood friend, the bully, and the singled out loser that gets sent to an unsurvivable place but PLOT TWIST: He survives.
The concept of 'loser gets discarded and then gets insanely overpowered' was personally inspired by two series called Failure Frame and Arifureta.
But I was really unhappy with how they dealt with the characters there.
In those stories in general, what makes me uncomfortable is watching everything get handed to the main character on a silver platter once they push through the 'hell' they have to escape from. Like, after just ONE push, it's smooth sailing… Though, it's a bit inaccurate.
I actually really, REALLY love it when good things happen to the main lead without much grief.
But, in those stories, they frame the MC as the ultimate moral goal of everything. As if there's NOTHING to fix. AS IF THE TRAUMA ITSELF fixed their naive personality.
Like nothing was broken inside of him that becomes a problem if it goes untreated later on.
The moment he survives the "hell" he's just… right about everything. The dude people look up to, the gigachad that big tittied girls wanna fuck, and small tittied girls wanna fuck.
That's fine by me in terms of physical prowess and superiority, and EVEN the physical attraction part.
But I believe that treating the main character as some virgin mary or a chinese emperor in a world of sinners is just lazy character writing.
Not saying I'm not guilty of doing that at some point, mind you xD I do love my tittied anime girls. Case in point, when Van was in Recess in chapter 23, he was so different and swole that half if not the whole school simped for him.
Though, I will say that I do aim for him to have both endearing traits… As well as ones that are not.
Because the type of character that leaves a traumatic dungeon experience is not the type of person you'd wanna meet, nor a person you should always look up to regardless of how hot or even clever they are, which is a part of the core concept of what I'm currently aiming for in season 2.
For example, if Van didn't condition himself to think things through, he'd have just killed both the princess and Hicks purely because of them being indirect accomplices in his exile, or because he'd have dismissed them as just monsters in the dungeon or an illusion he has to push through.
Now, for those of you who want a bloody vengeance, don't you worry. I don't plan to cop out of that. Say some bullshit like: #revengeisbad
Or: " *GRUNT* I wanna kill you but blah blah I'd be just like you. I'll just let you live" after killing 5342412645 henchmen.
Even if revenge IS bad, and damages your psyche.
If it's evil, even.
Because, while IT CAN HELP to some degree, merely saying: "I dont wanna be like you" while being surrounded with anime pussy doesn't fucking cure years of torture and harrassment.
Van is going to need his closure.
So, revenge is a core concept I do not plan to simply discard or put in the background, hoping people forget about it.
Van IS coming for Kazuya.
What will happen, is something you'll have to read for yourself to find out.
Thanks again for reading, and catch you next time :)