In a magical realm severed from the World, there exists a domain Outside of the World. It is a bleak, twilight place, with perpetually overcast skies, giving the impression of an unending dusk or an imminent storm.
The landscape is a desolation, overflowing with multitudes of wraiths and other spectral, non-living threats.
In the middle of that magical realm is a castle. The castle is more of a fortress made of monoliths of obsidian shadow, thrusting jaggedly from the perpetual twilight.
It dominates the desolate land, a structure of impossible proportions that seems to absorb any light that would have been rather than reflect it. Its walls are ebony, slick with some unearthly spects, and laced with faint, phosphorescent runes that glow like flickering lights. No banner flies from its walls or from its corridors; instead, the highest spires are wreathed in malevolent, swirling mist.
The courtyard is not paved with stone, but a stretch of compacted, spectral ash where the only sound is the wind whistling through unseen fissures.
The windows are deep, lightless cuts in the rock, giving the impression of watchful, empty eyes.
Inside that castle is a large black throne, where sits a woman of impossible beauty.
She has long purple hair and red eyes, but unseen due to them being closed, and wears a full-body outfit that highlights her curvaceous body, which is said to be 'just about perfect', with metallic shoulder pads.
She rests with her right hand on her cheek while her eyes are closed, with her face looking like she is at peace, while her left hand holds a spear that she lets rest over her lap.
Then a spiraling black portal opens up, disturbing the tranquility of the scene, as something appears from the portal, the purple-haired woman hurls her spear at dizzying speed, but a hand comes from the portal, grabbing the tip, stopping it altogether.
The purple-haired woman just has a smile on her face, as a woman covered in shadows or a black mist comes from the portal, she just looks in the purple-haired woman's direction.
"Haa, I knew you would be the hardest to grab, but it must be done." That is all the woman says before she appears in front of the purple-haired woman grabs her by the neck.
"Scáthach, I know what you want, while I can give it to you." She pauses to see the reaction of the woman now known to be Scáthach.
She looks excited and flexes her right hand, then the spear that was dropped on the floor after the woman appeared comes flying back into her hand, but the woman covered by shadow just waved her hand, and then the spear was turned to dust, making the woman gain a surprised and unhappy face, to say the least.
"Wha... How.. It was made from the remains of Curruid's skull, and further improved by my rune skills, so how in the world did you destroy that so easily?" Scáthach asked in complete and utter shock that spears was a spear made to kill gods, so it should be aptly durable for the feat, so how did this, this, whatever she was able to do what the gods never could.
"That is for you not to know, but as I said, I could give you your wish, but I won't, while you will die, you will come back just a quick, and don't even think about asking to die again. Well, you can, he will most likely give you a reason to live, but you could also train him to kill you."
She said to Scáthach, giving her hope, but what she did not add was that he would most likely never do it. And so after saying that, she then used her right hand to pull Scáthach right and her left to pull her left, thus taking her soul from her body, and Scáthach, in her soul form, looked unconscious, so she just went into the portal again, leaving the words
"Five down."
Then, in a realm that looked like it was made from fantasy or the divine, A golden land filled with plains of golden grass, and flora and fauna in plenty. In the heart of the great lands is a massive, gleaming castle stood, made not from stone, but from solidified light and energy, its spires reaching up like the prongs of a colossal crown.
The sky above was an eternal twilight blue, perpetually illuminated by a vast, circular halo. No shadow dared linger; every blade of grass shimmered with a sorta divine radiance.
The air was clean, filled with no impurities from modernity, vital flowers, and the faint echo of choral harmonies.
Inside that castle were many swords, and paintings of knights surrounding a round table, with other normal things that a castle would have.
Then, leading to the throne room inside is seen a woman with soft skin, long blonde hair tied in a bun, and soft, even maternal green eyes that are filled with life. Her figure is tall and curvaceous, clad in silver and blue armor, with a cloak, and above her head, she wears a gold crown.
She is seen practicing with a spear, but her training session was interrupted by a swirling black portal. She just looks at it while she gets into a fighting stance, waiting to see if it is a friend or foe.
From the portal comes the same woman covered by shadow, "Oh, so you aren't going to attack me. This helps a lot." The woman covered by shadow says to the woman with blonde hair.
"May I know who you are, my fair lady?" The woman with blonde hair questioned, not letting up on her fighting stance, but still not attacking.
"I am truly sorry, Artoria, but I can not tell you that, but what I can do is tell you why I am here and what is going to happen," the woman covered by shadow said to Artoria, and she just bristles at the, the well she doesn't know how to put it, how calm, mabye hoe orderish she sounds.
But just as she was going to react, she was in a chair with the woman covered by shadow in another chair in front of her.
"Ok, so I am here due to someone else's desires, more importantly, their desire for you." She did as she said and explained why she is there, and to Artoria's credit, she just took a deep breath and looked at her with eyes that said "continue," and the woman covered by shadow did.
"Ok, so seeing how you want more of an explanation, as I said, I can not tell you why I am here, but I can tell you what will happen: I am going to take your soul and reincarnate you in another world."
And just as she said that, Artoria lunged at her with the spear while she wanted to handle this calmly, but this woman just said she is going to take her soul, while she did say she was going to reincarnate her, she will still die, and Artoria Pendragon will not go down without a fight.
"Haaa, I should have known this was going to happen, but it doesn't matter." Just like Scáthach, she turned the spear in Artoria's hand to dust, and she then used her right hand to pull Artoria's right and her left to pull her left, thus taking her soul from her body, and Artoria, in her soul form, looked unconscious, so she went into the portal again, leaving the words
"Six down."
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In a world of heroes and villains, far different from the first, almost everyone in the world awakens a power at the age of six or around that time. However, this world is far more tragic than the one it is originally based on.
On a floating school, a scene of utter destruction is seen, a towering man with a powerfully muscular physique, imposing features, short white hair, and faded white eyes that showed no sense of feeling, and an above-average height young man with a muscled physique, long white hair, and glowing red eyes dressed in just pants and a red cape.
They were facing off against a young man with a young man of above-average height with a slim, muscular build and a fair skin tone. He has short, spiky, sandy blond hair with choppy bangs that hang over his eyebrows. His eyes are sharp and bright red in color.
And a short for his age young man, his round face is framed by a short mop of fluffy dark-green hair which curls up at odd angles around his head, casting noticeably dark shadows onto itself. His eyes are large and somewhat circular, and his irises are the same shade of green as his hair. He has a set of four symmetrical freckles in diamond formations, one on each cheek. Respectively, but the heroes were losing
In the background, many villains were seen fighting heroes, but the heroes were losing. In one of those backgrounds, a large, winged dragon with pale gray scales, she is dressed in a dark red, traditional qipao with a pale green scale trim around the shoulders, and she is seen fighting off 3 giant villains.
Behind her was a tall teenage girl with a mature physique. She has long black hair, tied into a smoother ponytail with two of her large bangs parted on both sides of her face. Her onyx-colored eyes are big yet sharp and paired with short eyebrows set in a determined expression.
She is dressed in a high-collared, sleeveless crimson leotard with silver lines at her waist and around her arms, which is open to expose her skin from her neck to just below her navel.
She sports calf-length red boots with heels, which dip sharply down in the center, two gold utility belts around her waist, with the back holding her books on composition information, and another thinner one around the top of her chest, below her shoulders.
She is seen fighting off villains of her own, but just like the other heroes, she is overwhelmed and is losing, but she is putting up a good fight, making weapons from her own fat to fight off the villains, but she is just exhausting herself even more.
The dragon lady roared, a plume of smoke and fire erupting from her nostrils as she deflected a massive stone club. "Stay back, you brutes! This is our SCHOOL!"
Near her, the teenage girl gasped, forming a dart with a sharp end with a tranquilizer in it from her side and sending it into an encroaching enemy. She gritted her teeth, feeling her strength drain. "Just... a little longer... we have to hold the line!"
The dragon lady, taking a brutal blow to her wing, cried out in pain. "Momo, we are surrounded! We have to retreat!"
The girl, throwing a last, desperate shield, shook her head stubbornly. "No! If we fall, they win!"
And the dragon lady is also having a hard time fighting off three giant villains alone, and so, in the background of the major fights, these two heroes were overwhelmed and died in combat, but thankfully for them, a swirling black portal took the souls of these two poor women, leaving the words "Seven, Eight down," as she left.
While he was engrossed in his fight, he looked over to where the female dragon and young woman had died, but seeing nothing put his focus back onto the fight.
[A/N: If you have any thoughts, tell me, so leave a comment, support me on Patreon, and if you're reading from here, thank you for the support. Have a great and blessed day(just great if you're not religious), and check out my other account where I publish Og novels. It's called FictionDragon, and it has one novel posted: Rise of the Heir to the Abyss. And if you are wondering why in the other chapters they did not see the portal, for 1 they weren't focused on it and not alone or already dead, and 2 it's death if she doesn't want you to see it, you won't. The reason that Scáthach and Artoria noticed was because for 1 they were alone, for 2 they have high spiritual aspects or whatever, and lastly and most importantly death wanted to be seen, and how all for one noticed was they have tons of quriks, so I don't think there won't be perception boosting or spiritual ones of the sort, so just fyi