The Bounty Hunter

October 28th, 2088

Eual awoke with a start and soon realized his situation.  Demon had him restrained, with its mouth/eye right behind Eual’s head and its tentacles wrapped tightly around all his limbs.  Eual looked towards me “Truly, a clever person.  I wouldn’t expect that the one clue I could find would in fact be a trap.  So, are you going to take me to your employer now?” he inquired calmly.  I shook my head and replied “No.  There is no employer after all.”  Eual frowned at me “Then why are you after me?”  “I want to know the details of Project Redemption.”  

At my words, Eual went pale.  Sweat flowed down his face as he spoke in a whisper “Where did you hear that name?”  I chuckled in response “Does it matter?  I’m here and I have you.  Do you think you can resist my magic?”  I sketched out a symbol in the air with my finger.  As the symbol was drawn, the air around it became distorted.  This distortion floated slowly to Eual and pressed against his forehead, leaving a sickly green mark with the same shape as the symbol.  “This magic removes one’s ability to lie and at the same time removes your ability to keep silent.  What is the goal of Project Redemption?” 

Eual struggled against his restraints, but Demon was unmoving.  Soon he couldn’t help but respond.  “Its goal is what its name implies.  The goal of Project Redemption is to save this world from itself.”  “Keep talking.”  “Someone like you has seen it right?  The inherent rottenness and cruelty present in this world.  The Darkmoon Queendom dominates most of the continent, yet still wars pointlessly with its neighbors.  The common folk are oppressed, the nobles are drunk on power, and the Cult of Chains is a fraud that deals in lies.” 

I was surprised to hear this take from a Bound one.  “If you believe that the Cult is a fraud, why did you join it?”  At my question, Eual snorted.  “I thought that the best way to change it was to do so from the inside.  The Dutiful Erilom is a hedonist who is only interested in drugs and orgies with teenage slave boys.  I was planning on staging a coup and tearing down the Cult from within.  Those hypocritical bastards were the ones who opened my eyes to the sorrow in this world and I wanted to personally destroy them before the end.” 

The more he talked, the more questions I had.  “Why do you hate the Cult so?”  “When I joined the Cult, I was a believer.  I thought upholding the 5 Chains of Duty was my life’s calling.  And yet as I spent my years as an initiate then an apprentice and then finally as a Bound one, I saw the Cult openly flout the very rules they set for the world.  Bound ones freely used their authority to enslave those they wanted and chose to pursue self-gratification instead of fulfilling their duty.  I brought my complaints to the Dutiful Erilom herself and she simply laughed it off.  She said that we were the chosen ones to guard the world from chaos by imposing order through force and that we had the right to do what we want because of that.  That was 180 years ago and since then I have hated them.” 

“Who are the other 4 executives?”  Eual smiled at that question.  “They’re my dear friends, the ones who have given me hope in this life.  We met some 120 years ago at a tavern brawl.  We were all involved and at the end we were the only ones standing.  It was me, Alren Oyop the bunny-kin, Elna Dupoi the dwarf, Khoreena Folrek the hobgoblin and Jupon Paw the cat-kin.  We started talking and realized that we all had seen the true horrid colors of this world.  That fact helped foster trust and solidarity between us and soon we traveled together.”  “What is The Place in Between?” 

Eual made a face as I asked that “You are truly well-informed, aren’t you?  The Place in Between is what we call a location at the edge of this world that led us to a completely new world filled with nothing but humans.”  He frowned at my lack of shock “Why are you not surprised?  That was a historic discovery.”  I laughed lightly at that and ignored his question.  “Where are your friends now and what are they doing?” 

“Alren goes by the name of Fujioka Shichiro and is in Japan.  He’s fooling around mostly since he has the easiest job of managing the logistics of the project.  Elna founded a weapon manufacturing firm in London, she goes by the name Erica West.  She’s been in charge of acquiring the materials necessary for the ritual from the human world and also keeping everything under wraps there.  Khoreena is in Atlanta right now, she has been helping Jupon mark all the necessary ley lines to supply the power for the ritual and has also been working with me to collect the necessary materials and people from our world.  She goes by the name Susan Freeman.  Jupon is the leader of our group, he has been coordinating everything and he’s the one in charge of drawing the actual magic circle for the ritual.  He goes by the name Justin Fisher.  I don’t know his location, but the location of the magic circle is in the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia.  It’s protected by an extremely powerful barrier made by the four combined.” 

“Is Alren the only wizard?” I asked. “No, all of them are wizards except for me.” Damn, I suspected as much but it’s disheartening to hear.  And based off the story all of them are over a 100 years old at least.  Wizards naturally grow stronger with age, so they will be without a doubt powerful.  Wait, he said something earlier that I should check up on.  “You said before that you wanted to destroy the Cult before ‘the end’.  What did you mean by that? And what is the purpose of the magic circle?” 

Eual couldn’t help but laugh a rather eerie laugh that echoed throughout the cave.  “When we came across that world we thought how great it could be if our world had turned out like that.  We initially just wanted to live there in peace after giving up on our own world.  But then we noticed signs of its collapse.  Overpopulation, pollution, religious and racial strife along are prevalent in that world.  Wars started occurring with greater frequency and ferocity.  If left on its current path, it would surely consume itself.  That world had different issues from ours yet both were doomed.  So we came up with a plan to save both worlds.  The magic circle is the key to the whole plan.  With its power we will make a new world, one where there is no sorrow, no misery and no regret.” 

“How exactly?  And what would happen to these worlds?”  I asked.  “The first step of creation is destruction.  In order to create a new world, we will destroy the old ones and fuse them together.  We will ascend to godhood in the process and watch over this paradise.  The magic circle gives us the means to do so.  This is a project nearly a century in the making, it’s something you can’t stop.  My friends will not lose to the likes of you.”  Eual gloated as I was in shock. 

I finally snapped back to my senses “We’ll see about that.” I stuck my palm onto his forehead and wrenched out his memories, killing him in the process.  Some info may be lost in the transfer, but I already have most of what I need from our conversation. “Demon, you may feed.”  My demonic familiar eagerly devoured Eual’s corpse as I left the cave to take in what I had heard. 

The Redemption group wishes to destroy both this world and my own.  The reason behind it doesn’t matter at the moment.  The remaining members are all powerful wizards who have likely infiltrated my world at the upper levels.  There is no one I can tell who can handle this.  I’ll have to solve this problem on my own.  AHHHHH!!!! I am not a hero, so why am I fucking stuck with having to save the world?!?!?  Not only that, but I have to save two worlds!?!?  Don’t fuck with me!!! 

Demon came out at this moment after feeding and latched onto my right bicep, becoming an amorphous black blob that then sank into the skin.  It spread out forming a tribal pattern tattoo of thorns and spikes that went down to my forearm and onto my right pectoral.  An open eye was tattooed onto the bicep.  I managed to calm myself down at this point.  I can do this; all I have to do is kill these remaining four.  They don’t know who I am and they won’t be able to find out.  For the people precious to me, I can’t afford to fail.