In a place far removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life on the planet Earth, in a level of existence that is exactly 7 planes higher than that of the of the third dimension, lay an abode that was even far removed from that of Heaven and all of the Hells. A place that literally sat just at the edge of a great expanse of arid dessert that was known to some as the Sands of Time, this was essentially a grand central station for all of Time.
This grand location was an epicenter where all of the various levels of existence converged, a nexus at which all of the possible alternate universes and worlds met and coalesced and surrounded a great expanse of land that bordered the Sands of Time on one side and was bordered on the other by the aforementioned epicenter of existences, this was the Multiverse, which to an observer on land appeared to be an endless expanse of swirling colors that spanned the full spectrum.
The landmass itself stretched on from horizon to horizon, indicating that it was quite large. Upon this land mountains, and river valleys dotted the landscape, large forests of humongous trees were also a common sight, but it is what sat within a particularly large clearing that was near where the mountains ended and the forest began that a structure that appeared somewhat out of place is to be found.
A truly massive castle of Scandinavian design could be found within this great clearing, its stone walls and fortifications were of a rock that was almost pure white in color and shined like a precious jewel in the sun. A large multi meter tall wall encircled the great compound; the entirety of this outer wall could be measured in several kilometers. Great spires and towers stretched toward the heavens on high from their foundations, great halls were visible leading from one tower to another, a massive gate marked the entrance to this magnificent structure, its draw bridge currently was closed. A great moat encircled the castle, its crystal clear waters revealed several variety of fish and large reptiles lived within it depths.
It is not this majestic structure though that is the focus of this tale, but rather it is the two figures that are currently dancing about one of the castle’s courtyards in a beautiful but deadly dance of bladed weaponry. One was a beautiful woman with long lustrous ebon hair that she kept tied in a side pony tail on the right side in a golden hair tie and tied with a magenta ribbon. Her pale ivory skin was glistening with perspiration from the intensity of their morning sparring session. She wore a somewhat unusual ensemble; it appeared to be a cross between traditional oriental clothing and that of a sexy sailor uniform. A white and turquoise top hugged her shapely upper body, especially around her very generous breasts, a short pink and white tie that had a golden emblem at its center sat atop her heavenly pair as a final ornamentation. A pair of brown sheer gloves ran down from her upper bicep to her wrist and was covered by an ornate pair of half sleeves that matched her top in color but were accented in magenta and gold. She also wore a black miniskirt and a matching pair of brown stockings that ended just below the bottom of her skirt. To finish her outfit a pair of ankle length boots were upon her feet. In her deceptively delicate looking hands she held a somewhat unorthodox looking pole arm. Its length was about roughly two and a half meters in length and a good portion of that was the brown hued lower half of the weapon. The middle portion of the shaft was covered in a purple material that made gripping its shaft easier on the users off hand. At the top of the shaft just below its deadly crescent shaped blade, was dark turquoise colored scaling that greatly resembled that of a large reptile. Its large crescent shaped blade was decorated with golden dragon shaped engravings. What truly stood out about the beautiful weapon was the dark turquoise and golden eastern dragon’s head that connected the shaft and the blade of the guan dao, from below the dragon’s neck a magenta ribbon swung about in the wind as the weapon was swung with great skill and precision at its target.
The aforementioned target was a tall, athletically built, dark tanned man with handsome features and mid back length white hair that was bound by a chord of black leather and left his bangs to hang over his eyes and frame his face, the bangs were especially prominent over his right eye. He had a roguishly handsome face with moderately narrow cheekbones, thin well sculpted white eyebrows and expressive crimson eyes. One unusual feature he had was the three violet colored marks on his face. The largest and most prominent was a heptegram that was placed on his forehead; similarly he had a pair of smaller seven sided stars beneath each of his eyes. He was dressed in similarly unusual clothing that appeared to be made entirely of some form of leather. On his upper body he wore a light blue-grey coat that was skin tight against his sculpted torso and ended at his ankles like a trench coat wood, the only difference here was that the ends of the coat were not one piece and instead were divided into multiple flaps that started at the waist and trailed to the end of the coat, also the collar of the coat was two part, the first collar was folded around in the traditional manner around the neck, the other across the pectorals like on a suit jacket. A pair of similarly colored shoulder pauldrons sat atop his shoulders and seemed to almost be a part of the coat itself. Around his neck was a black leather choker that was studded with golden studs that circled around the neck and had a pendent hanging from the middle of throat. The pendent was a golden hexagram that dangled from the end of the stud it was attached to. A small golden pair of earrings shaped like three interconnecting circles hung from each ear. The coat’s sleeves ended at mid forearm and were covered by a pair of black leather gloves that were studded with silver on the outside of the forearm and on the back of the hand and knuckles. At least two fingers on each hand bore a golden or silver ring. To complete the outfit were a pair of black leather pants with a silver chain dangling from the right hip pocket to the right back pocket, and a pair of black combat boots.
He too held a pole arm in his hands though in his case he used a form of spear that had had three blades like a partisan, though this weapon had much larger blades than usual. The shaft of the weapon was black and the butt of the spear was capped in silver and ended in a pointed tip. The weapon resembled a trident to a degree, but the two side blades were double edged and were somewhat curved in shape, while the middle blade was also double edged and bigger than the other two and was straight rather than curved. In the middle of the head of the weapon, a sapphire blue gem was inlayed and was surrounded by a golden plate that traced the perimeter of each of the spears’ three blades. Currently its wielder was holding the spear in a guard position to ward off overwhelming strength and speed of his opponent’s blows. Well they’d be overwhelming to a normal person, but Havard Hildson was far from a normal person.
Kan’u Unchou continued to rain down strike after strike with her beloved Green Dragon Crescent Blade, also known as the Seiryu Engetsutou, on her sparring partner and Lord, Havard and was honestly beginning to feel a bit frustrated. He just kept blocking her attacks! Granted she wasn’t going all out, seeing as it was a spar, but she was putting some considerable strength behind each of her normally deadly blows! And to make matters worse he had that infuriating smirk of his out in full force!
CLANG! WOOSH! CLANG! CLANG! WOOSH! KACHINK! CLANG! The sounds of metal meeting metal and the sounds of the air being cleaved in two rang out loudly in the spacious courtyard.
This continued for a while with Kan’u fiercely striking out with overhead and horizontal slashes that were usually either dodged altogether or were blocked with the metallic shaft or the blades of Her Lord’s tri-bladed spear.
With a grunt of exertion Kan’u managed to break the locking of their blades and backed away breathing in quick breaths of air to regain her composure, she had to keep a straight head!
‘Okay, he’s just trying to get me riled up! Oh My Lord can be so infuriating at times! It is a good tactic though…Hmm, should I try to provoke him into attacking, or should I continue to play his game, and attack when I find an opening?’ wondered Kan’u as she continued to strike at Her Lord fiercely with her guan dao.
All the while, as Kan’u continued to strike fiercely with her Seiryu Engetsutou, Havard continued to grin all the while, his reason for doing so was indeed the same as Kan’u deduced, though truly he just liked seeing the normally stoic and oh so serious General Kan’u get all flustered. It truly was a sight to see and he could easily see why Sei (Cho’un Shiryu) loved to tease her as much as she did. Aisha (Kan’u’s style name) was truly a fierce and nearly unrivaled warrior of the Three Kingdoms era, but she was just so adorable when she was embarrassed, and she was so easy to embarrass too.
As Aisha continued to strike at Havard over and over again, over on the sidelines, some of the other residents of the magnificent castle were conversing amongst themselves as they watched the almost daily spectacle of Aisha sparring with Their Lord, or in the case of a few of the onlookers Their Lord and Lover. Among those watching was a pair of rather young looking girls each appearing to be no older than perhaps 10 or 11 and each were of a rather diminutive stature and build. The first was a blonde haired girl with purple eyes who wore a rather elaborate combination of a purple and gold accented jacket with a lilac colored skirt and stockings, atop her head was a matching hat of purple and gold that had a large dark turquoise ribbon on it, that matched the even larger one that rested at the small of her back. She was a bookish sort and was an expert tactician despite extremely young, she was also a very shy and easily flustered girl that also panicked easily typically exclaiming her trademark “Hawawawa” while doing so.
Next to her was a slightly larger girl with red hair and tanned skin. She was a rather expressive young lady that wore her hair short and added a somewhat cartoonish looking tiger hair clip as an accessory to her bright mop of hair. She wore a combination of an athletic bra like shirt and bikers shorts that were a dark blue and a yellow half shirt over it that had yin-yang designs on the top of each shoulder; she also wore red fighting gloves on her hands that covered all but the fingers. On one arm she had a sleeve that was of the same color of her first layer of clothing. Around her neck she wore a red scarf that ended in tattered edges, and on her feet she had layers of tape wrapped instead of shoes to enable maximum freedom of movement. Around her waist she wore two brown leather belts that met one another in an x shape around her waist and they were secured by a dark grey metal belt buckle. She might have been innocently cheering her “Onii-chan” and sworn elder sister on, and seemed to like a normal little girl, truth be told she was a bit of a wild child and sometimes acted borderline barbaric.
Next to the Diminutive Duo stood another pair of young ladies whom were noticeably older, both appearing to be in either their late teens or early twenties. The first of the duo was a tall long brown haired tomboy that liked to wear her hair in in a high ponytail that was bound by a long pink and gold accented ribbon, and wore some of her hair that framed her face in a pair of tube like black and white cloth hair accessories. It should also be noted that she had a fairly prominent ahoge atop her head. She had slightly thicker eyebrows than the average girl and dark expressive magenta eyes that were intently watching Her Lord and Kan’u duke it out with one another. She wore a rather elaborate outfit that consisted of a turquoise and gold top that had black sleeves. Atop this she wore a white and gold mantle that covered the tops of her shoulders, which had pink tassels dangling from it and was tied with a black and gold bow that sat on her chest right above her rather substantial breasts, and to finish off her outfit she wore a white miniskirt. Her long legs were covered in a pair of white and pink boots that had golden accents criss crossing their surface. She was a rather brash young lady, who was a more than competent commander on the battlefield and was a force of nature when engaged in direct combat, though she would never admit it she was easily embarrassed when speaking to Her Lord alone and was similarly easily flustered like Aisha.
Next to her stood a slightly younger beauty with long light blue hair that was cut short in the front and sides and was held back in a long braid in the back, she had large crimson eyes that were also watching her chosen Lord play Kan’u like a fool as he continued to goad her on with his teasing smirk. Atop her head she wore a rather large ornate hair piece that was white and accented with a black design that outlined the hair piece and was held to her head with hair clips and had crimson ribbons with golden beads trailing from either end. She had a slightly more trim and lithe figure that was built more for speed rather than power like her tomboy companion, and she really knew how to use it seeing as she was easily the quickest among the Five Tiger Generals. She wore an ornately decorated white kimono-dress hybrid that had a section of the chest cut out in an oval shape to reveal some of her cleavage. The outline of this little fan service device had portions of the cloth cut away in a zigzag pattern and was dyed maroon on the part of the design that rested at the bottom of the oval where her cleavage ended and the cloth began. The shoulders of the kimono-dress were poofy like the sleeves of some Western Victorian era dresses were, and the end of the sleeves billowed out greatly like the sleeves of a typical kimono would. On the billowy portion of the sleeves black and yellow butterfly wing patterns were displayed, and on the upper portion of the sleeve near the biceps was a circular design that was divided by five smaller inner circles that formed a pentagram where the edges of the circles intersected, this was also done in yellow and black. The kimono sleeves also had another addition in the form of a crimson ribbon which hung from each sleeve. On the bottom hem of the kimono-dress, which only went a little past the upper thighs of its wearer, another maroon zigzag pattern similar to the one outlining the bust was present. Around her waist was tied purple obi that was outlined by gold. The kimono-dress sported a similar zigzag pattern around the throat as well. On her arms and legs were a pair of maroon fingerless lace gloves and a pair of white stockings that had the same zigzag pattern as the kimono-dress done in the same maroon. To finish the outfit she wore a black pair of zori sandals with white straps. She was an unusual woman, who had many diverse moods, though she was usually playful and teasing and she had a peculiar obsession with menma (fermented bamboo shoots), to the point that she ate the condiment with nearly everything including in her tea.
The last among those watching was yet another duo, an unusual one at that due to their unusual hair color. The first was a young woman with an athletic build and lightly tanned skin. She had hair the color of vermilion done in a Hime cut, which was tied into a high ponytail and was held in place by a highly ornate hair piece made of a pink tinged silver metal, which had golden designs on it. She had beautiful golden eyes that seemingly shined with her emotions. She wore a vermillion sleeveless shirt that was trimmed in gold with two double sided golden leaf buttons and a dark blue mini skirt. She also wore arm bands that were of a slightly lighter shade of vermillion than her shirt and were also trimmed in gold. On each armband, at the top of the material on the outer part of the upper arm was another double sided golden leaf decoration. She also wore matching vermillion boots that went up to just below her kneecaps and were also trimmed in gold and also had the familiar double sided golden leaf at the top of each boot. Under the boots she wore a pair of white stockings that reached to mid-thigh. Over the shirt she wore a strapless chest plate that was a bright grey color that had golden curved lines engraved in is surface and formed several curling loops on the chest and on the back of the armor, connected to this was what appeared to be a loincloth or an extension of the under shirt, that reached her kneecaps and was of the same color as the aforementioned shirt and was also trimmed in gold. Over her armbands she had a pair of forearm and hand guards made of the same light grey metal as her chest plate, which were also similarly trimmed in gold. Under the hand guards were a pair of black fingerless gloves that protected her hands and increased her grip on her sword when in battle. She was a very talented general that had been in charge of a relatively small territory that was subject to the rule of the idiotic minor warlord Enshō Honsho, and had been among the first to openly befriend Havard when he had first become the grand administrator of the region that would become part of the Kingdom of Shu Han/Shoku.
The second member of the final duo also possessed an unusual hair color, not to mention the somewhat odd hair accessory she used to keep her hair held back. She was a tan, buxom, athletically fit woman whose hair was a usual shade of pink called Thulite, and would have been down to her shoulders if it were not held in a spikey bun by a rather large silver spiked metal band. Her face was framed by the bangs that were left free of the spikey bun, some of which were spiked upward in the middle of her forehead. She had eyes were a bright emerald green and seemed to glow with barely restrained energy, she was watching rather intently as two of her favorite people in the world, or any other world for that matter, were sparing with their respective pole arms. She wore little in the way of clothing on her upper body aside from some bandages around her breasts called sarashi and a black leather choker around her throat. On her arms were a series of maroon leather straps that began on each of her upper arms and crisscrossed their way down to each of her forearms which transitioned into a pair of braided leather forearm guards of the same color, which ended in a pair of fingerless gloves. Attached to the gloves was studded silver metal plate that rested on the back of each of her hands and covered her knuckles. Over her shoulders rested a blue that was held a maroon ribbon that connected both sides of the cape. The end of the cape was white and made of a frilly material and was outlined by gold, this pattern outlined the entire lower edge of the cape, which then transitioned into normal white and gold fabric and made up the outer trim of the cape. This pattern ended on each side of the cape at the ribbon that fastened it shut at the throat. Covering a majority of her lower body was a pair of midnight blue hakama that really only covered her crotch, rear end and legs, seeing as she was wearing absolutely nothing underneath them. The hakama are held up by a midnight blue obi sash with white trimming and was tied like a martial arts belt. The ends of each side of the belt were covered in swirling white designs. On her feet was a pair of traditional Japanese geta with black straps. What little clothing she had on was strangely reminiscent of a Japanese samurai, which would normally be impossible considering she hailed from a reality, which had Japanese names and spoke the Japanese language; it was still indeed located in Ancient CHINA not Japan. It was likely another one of those quirks that occasionally snuck into the various realities that made up the Multiverse, much like how the entirety of the alternate world of Three Kingdoms China was much more modernized in terms of fashion and culture than that of other realities that focused on Ancient Alternate Earths.
Each of these women were members of a group of important warriors, monarchs, tacticians and even chefs that were the central characters of an Alternate Earth’s version of the Chinese classic “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. What was so different about this reality was that almost all the central characters from the novel were female instead of male, and some of those that had originally been female were instead male. Case in point being the flamboyant weirdo that pranced about the castle in nothing but a pink thong, this darkly tanned muscle bound fruitcake was the alternate version of one of The Five Great Beauties of Imperial China, Chōsen. But enough of the mentally scarring mental images, and instead let’s focus on how this came to be. What caused all of these men and women to be transported from their original reality to Havard’s dimension was quite simple. It was more or less how things were supposed to go in the original dimension that centered on the main male protagonist Kazuto Hongo, with the clear exception of Kazuto not being at all involved in the Alternate Universe that Havard had chosen to infiltrate. It was because Mr. Hongo had been sidetracked while in the pursuit of the Taoist Saji Genpo, which allowed the mystic to escape without Kazuto coming along for the ride, as had happened in the Prime Version of that reality. So without Kazuto’s interference, the alternate universe of the Prime reality would have been fated to follow the events of the novel, events that resulted in the death of many of the central characters.
This is not the only time this had happened in the various realities that were spawned from the Alternate Three Kingdoms world, in fact there are several that were caused by small seemingly unimportant decisions, and many more from major ones. This was however the first time that Kazuto had missed entering the Alternate Past completely, which what is made this instance in time so important. While it may have been excusable to have allowed the events to have unfolded as they would have in the novel, or possibly even in a different manner, who’s to say that the central characters would have been better off without Kazuto’s involvement at all? It is rather hard to say, but there was the distinct possibility of the Shoku faction never having formed without the involvement of Kazuto, and there were even some realities where the original leader of Shoku actually showed up and organized her kingdom. But in the instance of this particular reality Ryuubi Gentoku had yet to show up and claim leadership of the state of Shu. Meaning that someone had to establish Shoku as a power, and if not Kazuto or Queen Ryuubi, then who? Well this was as good of a reason as any for Havard to get involved, besides it had been a while since he had done anything outside of watching over the Multiverse from his dimension, so why not? All he really had to do was call Mom and Dad and get an okay from the heads of Heaven and Niflheim. Easier said than done right?
Well it just so happens that the Almighty was okay with the plan, since it allowed for the saving of many lives that would have otherwise been lost, but he did caution His Son to be careful and to treat any ladies he met with due respect. Following this was an unexpected meeting with Peorth, with whom he had exchanged pleasantries and some small talk with.
Hild on the other hand was thrilled with the idea for an entirely different reason; she got to see her baby boy! And better yet, he was going to a reality full of young, attractive nubile warrior women, oh so many wonderful things might happen! Why there might even be grandchildren in the near future!
And so after much teasing and quite a few suggestive comments about what he might get up to in a world full of warrior women, Hild saw her son off with a final hug and a wave good bye. With that Havard departed from Niflheim and departed for his abode near the Nexus of All That Is, Allrfinna.
And so with the blessing of both his direct superiors whom were also his parents, Havard went about getting ready to head out on another assignment….well truth be told it would more or less be a vacation to him and a break from the monotony that was his duty as Guardian Overseer of the Multiverse and It’s Many Realities. Really if you’ve seen one alternate universe of the Three Kingdoms, you’ve seen them all right? How much different could it possibly be dealing with female versions of warriors he had long since known about, and in the case of a few, even interacted and battled with.
Things did NOT go as he had assumed they would, but then again, did they ever?
Flashback
Upon finishing his preparations before departing from his castle, Havard was ready to leave for the Alternate World. Upon exiting the castle and crossing the drawbridge he absently made a slight gesture with his right hand that caused the bridge to creak and begin to lift from where it rested on the edge of the bank to a closed position. Most of the functions within this realm, especially those of the castle could be willed into activation with nothing more than a thought or gesture.
Upon making it to the paved path which led to his castle, Havard disappeared from sight with a slight whoosh of displaced air, leaving no one standing where he had just been. Havard reappeared at the edge of the colorful swirling expanse that was the visual representation of all of the realities, both Prime and Alternate that were under his watch.
Havard looked at the all too familiar view, one that he had seen daily for what seemed like eons, with a look of fondness shining in his crimson eyes. He really did enjoy watching over these worlds and lands that made up the countless realities of the Multiverse but the workload could get to be a little overwhelming at times. When he was most in need of time to relax and relieve his stress, trips like these were usually the best solution to working it off.
Worlds like the one he was going to, if not aided in some way usually resulted in Bad Endings, or the occasional Tragic Endings, and those tended to throw the balance of the Multiverse a bit out of whack if enough of these existences were allowed to occur. Just like if enough Bugs, the embodiments of system errors were allowed to build up in Yggdrasil, bad things could happen. So in a way he was doing a job similar to that of the Goddesses, but in his case, his job required him to be much more hands on than just killing Bugs with a Debugging weapon. Keeping the Balance of All Existence was a labor intensive and time consuming assignment, but he was more or less born for the job. With his inherent abilities to manipulate time and space, this job was made much easier to accomplish.
Essentially he was able to do things that normally weren’t allowed by the Ultimate Force, but that’s because his existence was more or less an anomaly, in a universe that was fairly well ordered. The universe was almost entirely dualistic, examples of such are: Good and Bad, God/Goddess and Demon, Black and White, all of these things existed; however there was much more to the Universe and Existence than the common Goddess or Demon knew, while there were things that remained somewhat ambiguous, there were no embodiments of such a thing, or so it was commonly thought. Throughout All of Existence there existed a Grey area that lay between Black and White, between Demon and God, between Good and Evil, and this is where Havard came in, he was an embodiment of that Greyness. He was born of the Almighty, the Ultimate form of Good, the Lord of the Gods and Goddesses, The All Father, and Hild, Queen of Niflheim, the CEO of Hell, the Head Demoness, THE Daimakaichou. It was he who was tasked by his Mother and Father to take on a post that served both Heaven and Niflheim, yet at the same time remains separate from both, one that existed outside of the Ultimate Force, a position that had once been held by the Titan Chronos. He was to be born and be the first being that was BOTH a True God and True Demon, a Hybrid of the two tenth dimensional races.
The Ultimate Force existed to keep reality in check, and for the most part it worked very well. However just the Ultimate Force alone was not enough to ensure peace in the afterlife, especially with the rivalry and enmity that was held between the two races of Tenth Dimensional beings. A system was created to ensure peace between the Deities and Demons; this was known as the Doublet System. For every Deity there is a Demon counterpart, if one dies then so does the other. This system was created due to the struggle for market shares on human souls, battles for such could often get quite vicious, so as to dissuade the combatants from killing one another, this was due to the fact that neither Deities or Demons reproduced often, and neither side could really afford to lose any of their own. Most of the Deities and Demons were more concerned with the struggle for control of human souls, so it was not an entirely unusual prospect that certain things would get forgotten about or overlooked by a Deity/Demon that was actively participating in the struggle, this was especially the case for those whose responsibilities were crucial to maintaining Existence.
But that’s all neither here nor there, was what was important the fact that he was off on another fun filled vacation! ... Umm that is he was off on another of his very important assignments!
Closing his crimson eyes, Havard let out a shallow breath and concentrated. Raising his arm, with the palm of the hand facing outward, the air before him visibly stirred. From the point directly in front of his raised hand, a large rectangular portal made of glowing purple-black energy formed that was about three meters high and two wide. This was the portal that would connect Allrfinna to the Alternate Existence he was assigned too.
He had just a few last minute adjustments to make, with but a thought, a pair of silver armlets appeared around his biceps, along with a pair of mid-forearm length silver bracers. The surface of each of the silver limiting bands was engraved with runic glyphs and swirling flowing patterns. These were part of the limiting jewelry that he was required to wear, when going into another existence, especially ones that did not have Gods and Demons running around like everyday people, like Heaven and Niflheim did. The full power of a Deity or Demon could literally warp reality in a third dimensional realm. It was mostly due to their extremely high levels of Mana and their existence as tenth dimensional beings. By wearing all of these accessories on his person, along with his habitually worn limiter choker and earrings, he was able to not distort reality around him nearly as much as he would without them. Even with the limiter jewelry on, he was still VERY strong, even superhuman by the standards of normal mortals, in terms of magical and physical abilities. By comparison he would probably be as powerful magically as a certain red-haired firebrand that he had run into when visiting L-Sama’s corner of Existence, damn was that one amusing young lady!
“Well here goes nothing.” Havard said to no one, pretty much just readying himself for what was to come. “I hope there aren’t any ‘uncute tomboys’ as Ranma would say, running around, the last thing I need is to get my head bashed in by some psycho bitch.”
And with those potentially fateful words, Havard stepped forward into the portal, which silently closed and faded into nothingness.
Unnamed Alternate Existence: Sometime Around the 2nd Century AD
A vast open plane of featureless dessert and huge rocky cliffs sat silently as the wind blew up dust and sand obscuring the view of any unfortunate enough to be traveling. It was in the shade of one of these large rocky formations that a paved mountain road had been built, though no pedestrians or travelers were currently within sight. Suddenly, something that would have most definitely startled any passerby occurred. A glowing black and purple orb the size of a watermelon coalesced from nothing but thin air. Giving off a few pulses of its unusual light the orb’s shape began to distort and grow at startling rate until it was a completely different shape. A rather large black and purple portal now stood where orb had once been, it’s edges crackling with purple lightning like arcs.
From within the middle of the black expanse, a disturbance within the surface became visible. Soon a figure emerged from within the two dimensional doorway. The figure was a tall athletically built and darkly tanned man with an almost mocha complexion, and crimson eyes, took in the sight of his dreary surroundings. His shockingly white hair was cut shorter in the front; at about just past ear length with the right hand portion of his bangs almost completely obscuring his right eye, while the left-hand side of his bangs framed his handsome face. The rest of his hair was pulled into a pony tail that went to the middle of his back and was held in place with a silver metallic hair accessory, which was engraved with four small six sided stars around the band, one on each side. From each ear hung an earring the size of an American Quarter in the shape of three interconnecting triangles of silver metal. Around his neck was a black leather collar that had silver studs covering its surface, it almost looked like a dog collar. Hanging from the middle of it was another ornately made hollowed out silver six pointed star that was surrounded by a golden circle of metal. Each piece of jewelry had been a gift from his parents. On his forehead and cheeks was an identical pattern that greatly resembled a violet tattoo of a seven sided star, or heptegram, the largest of which was on his forehead. He wore a black no-sleeved shirt that seemed to be made of leather and was covered by crisscrossing black leather belts from the waist up to the bottom of the ribs. Above these belts and covering the rest of his torso was more leather material that was covered by a pair of belts that formed an X across his chest and upper back. A pair of black leather pauldrons covered the top of each shoulder and a portion of each arm, and was connected to the black straps. On each bicep was a silver metal armlet, that was engraved with runes and swirling wavy designs. Covering his hands was a pair of black fingerless gloves that were studded with silver metal on the back of the hands, knuckles and on the forearms. A pair of black pants covered his legs and was covered at kneecap height by a pair of black leather boots that had three silver buckles fastening each.
Havard took in the sight of this Alternate reality and he had to say that he wasn’t impressed.
‘This place looks like any other wasteland that can be found on Midgard, why would the Worldgate take me to this exact spot? Is this where I am to meet the first Key Variable? And for that matter who will I meet? Will it be like in the Prime reality, where Kazuto passed out after pursuing Saji?’ He certainly hoped not, those bandits were really annoying from what he had seen, when he viewed the events of the original reality. Granted he had only viewed the important events. He did not want to watch others having sex while he was on the job. That was for other times, and besides he could get the real thing whenever he wanted too more or less, but that depended on if his lady friends were in the mood, granted Peorth was pretty much ready and raring to go whenever they met up.
It was during his momentary lapse of attention that three armed toughs seemingly appeared from midair.
One was a comically tall, fat and overall brutish looking fellow with a dumb look to him, the second was small and had rat like features, the third was the most normal looking of them, and had a black moustache, each of them was clothed in matching brown and navy blue clothing and brown and yellow armor covering only their stomachs. Around each of their necks and heads was a yellow bandana. In each of their hands was a Chinese dao of differing size.
“Hey bud, you don’t look like yer from around here.” Observed the most normal looking of the three armed toughs, a greedy glint coming to his eye, “And those’re some fancy clothes ya got there.” he continued eyeing up Havard’s entirely black attire, especially his limiter jewelry.
Havard continued to contemplate his surroundings, intentionally ignoring the three bandits before him. ‘Great it is those three idiots, of all the rotten luck! You’d think the absence of this reality’s main male Key Variable would be enough to throw some of the predetermined events off track, but NO things just have to occur when I don’t want to have to put up with them.’
“Hey you, Whitey, I’m talking to ya here!” shouted the normal looking tough, his two cohorts nodding in stereo, the big dumb looking one even adding “Yeah, when da boss iz speakin’ to yuz, yuz need ta pays attention!”
With a sigh of annoyance at the predictable actions of the three bandits, Havard put off his contemplation for later and looked the supposed leader of the trio in the eye.
“And just who are you? And what is it that you want?” Havard tried to sound polite, and not let his annoyance show, but really, was there any point in showing consideration toward what he knew were criminals? And incompetent ones at that?
“We want you to put yer hands in the air! That’s what we want, you rich bastard!” shouted the apparent leader, getting in Havard’s face, or rather he tried to, since just as he was about to lift his sword as emphasis to his statement, he suddenly found himself unable to lift his arm.
Havard held the bandit leader’s left forearm in a single handed vice like grip, stopping the man from raising his dao. Havard met the man’s grimacing face with a glare, making him wince.
“Do not raise your sword at me.” Havard whispered seriously “If you wish to attack me, it is not my fault if you are to meet the Almighty to face your judgment. It will be due to your own foolishness. ”
The man continued to grimace as Havard increased the pressure in between sentences, to the point that he might be able to break the man’s arm. The man’s cohorts were anything but silent and the short one shouted out his objection
“You bastard! No one gets away with disrespectin’ Big Bro!” the little man appeared to be quite livid and had since raised his sword and assumed an attack stance, this was mirrored by the lumbering brute and his meat cleaver like dao.
“Yeahs no wunz gets away with umm….dis-re-re—respekting Bro!” echoed the dumb brute, showing his mastery of the Japanese language.
Havard took in the sight before him, all the while holding the leader’s left arm in his grip. With one last sigh of annoyance, Havard broke the man’s arm with a sickening SNAP!
“AAAARRRGH! YOU SONUVA BITCH!” wailed the man as he fell to the ground in a heap cradling his wounded arm.
In response to their boss’s cry of agony, goons 1 and 2 decided to attack the offender. With a mighty swing that lacked anything resembling style or technique the large brute brought his large sword down on his target’s head. It was at the exact same time the small rat faced man decided to avenge his boss that, the brute’s sword made contact with thin air and his sword impacted with the ground in a great THUD! Both bandits looked at the spot their target had been in, in bafflement, no one was there!
The brute looked about in front of him in confusion, and it was at the sound of a person clearing it their throat, that was the last thing he heard before falling unconscious due to the gloved fist that had rocketed out from his blind spot and made contact with his temple.
The little rat faced man looked on in terror as the brawn of their group was knocked out with one punch to the noggin’! That had never happened before!
Before the little man could even hope to run away or choose to attack, he had the air forced out of his lungs by what felt like a bull goring him! This was in reality the palm of Havard making contact with the little bandit’s abdomen and sending him rocketing back several feet to crumble into an unconscious heap.
The group’s boss watched the sight in increasing horror as his underlings were beaten in two blows by this….this BEAST of a man! Cradling his shattered arm in his right arm, not caring that he was about to abandon his weapon or his underlings the man made to flee, but was met by the chilling glare of a pair of bloody crimson colored eyes.
Little did either man know, that more than one set of eyes had been watching all along from just up the mountain trail and from atop another cliff, overlooking the shaded trail. ‘What speed! And my god, what power! That man literally blurred when he moved!’ thought one of the onlookers in awe, her mind not being able to fathom another human moving at that speed.
The other onlooker on the other hand was not so much awed as it was looking at Havard with a critical eye. ‘That man in the unusual clothing…could he be the one that the seer foretold would appear from Heaven? He has such unusual clothing…is that a form of leather armor? And what is up with the unusual facial markings? And that speed, is that truly the limit at which he is capable of moving, or is he holding back just as I suspect?’
Find out what happens to the poor defenseless bandit leader, and the identity of the onlooker’s revealed next time on: Oh my Demon God!