Cross Worlds

Chapter 2-2 (Side- Reality)

The things Riku Fantasy told me about his world were insane. Magic, mythical creatures, and there's even people who complete jobs and requests known as heroes. That name holds a lot of irony considering most of those "heroes" are selfish, greedy, and will do almost any mission for the right amount of gold. That's the reason why Fantasy stopped being a hero. He didn't want to be associated with such self-centered assholes.

Outside of his past as a hero, Riku also told me a lot about his own life. Just like me, he doesn't remember his parents' faces because he's been alone since he was a kid. Unlike me though, he doesn't actually know whether or not they're still alive. I don't want to think about the possibility that they might've abandoned him, so I'm just going to assume they also died and he's secretly the heir to the throne of some kingdom.

Ever since he was a child, he's had to do whatever it takes to survive sometimes. He was forced to steal, become a hero at a young age and do some pretty awful quests, and he even awakened his magic when he was only eight years old. There are many ways one can awaken to magic in this world, whether it comes naturally, or your survival instinct forces you to call upon your magic to survive. For Fantasy Riku, it awoke emotionally.

Apparently, his magic awoke the day he met Roco, and it's the reason why Roco is so attached and loyal to Riku Fantasy. This all started while he was wandering through a certain forest, hunting for food. Just when he had found his prey, there was a loud "BANG!" and his dinner got away from him. Half upset and half curious, he went to check out what had caused the loud noise.

What he came upon was a variety of mages doing some kind of experiments on the animals of the forest. Mages that do such horrible things are known to the world as "Black Mages", mages who will play with life, death, and the nature of the world itself for their own personal gain. Since he was young, he doesn't remember exactly what they were doing to those animals. All he knew was that it was most definitely wrong. So, he decided to do something about it rather than leave to go get help. He didn't want those animals to suffer anymore.

The first creatures he tried to save was none other than Roco himself and his pack of griffons. The cage had a complicated lock on it, but he had become quite the master lock picker as a child. Quietly, he began applying those skills accordingly, hushing the griffons as he worked. At one point, he was almost spotted, but one of the griffons blocked him from view and even scared the mage away. He believes that that griffon was Roco, and I'm inclined to believe the same.

Without any mages looking his way, he undid the lock and opened up the griffons' cage. Now that they were free, it was time to cause some havoc. The griffons immediately began tearing everything apart; they attacked a few mages, broke open a few more cages with their powerful bodies, and destroyed as much equipment as they could. Just as things were looking up though, some sort of attack squad arrived with someone clearly set apart from the rest of them. Fantasy says he could never forget the words that man spoke: "Everything's going amiss... Kill all the animals, and if you find the one who set those griffons free, kill them too." With a wave of his hand, the small army simply began killing all the animals in sight.

One of the mages who was experimenting before spotted Riku and cursed at him, saying something along the lines of, "You've ruined everything! Die you brat!" That mage then fired a ray of magic at him, and as a child, there wasn't much he could do but watch as the ray of magic flew at his tiny body. However, a certain griffon saved him from his gruesome fate. Roco threw his body in front of Riku to protect him, but the blast blew off the front half of the right side of his body. Seeing this creature that was now bleeding to death because of him, Riku Fantasy snapped.

The attack squad all aimed their various attack magics at the boy, the rest of the animals already dead due to their ruthless onslaught. There were only two thoughts in his mind at that moment, "I wish I was stronger" and "I want to save this griffon". With those thoughts in mind, he let out a war cry. His magic had awoken, forming a protective barrier around himself and Roco, but destroying everything else in sight.