Man of Misfortune

Rise of the king

From the throne of a land unknown, a king awoke. The king's eyes were open, but narrowly. The king had been asleep far longer than anyone, but shorter than anyone. The act of time was not something that mattered in this place.

The king looked at his hand; he had a hand, but the hand had no shape or form. Something was missing here to make the king see the shape of his hand; he knew it was there and he knew his hand existed, but at the same time he could not fully understand what was wrong with his hand. He looked around the castle. He saw the windows, pillars, vases, and paintings, among many others; they all had a shape and form that he could understand and make an idea of.

The door opened, and he saw someone enter, just like his hand, who was also shapeless. What an interesting thing. The king, at the time he fell asleep, did not think that his mind would be able to perceive it or even see such things.

>>My king, you have awoken<< the being said with a feminine voice.

The voice sounded so far away but so close—a voice that the king had heard countless years ago. He clenched his hands; his body became stiff from hearing the voice and as memories returned from a long-forgotten time.

>>#####<< He could not say her name. The king tried to say the name that he remembered, but it could not be done; something was stopping him from saying the name as if it were a taboo word itself.

>>My king, it is fine. I know what you wished to say and what name you wanted to speak out now, but the gods have stopped us from naming our names<<. The beingspoke, and the king looked confused.

>>Why did the gods do that?<< the king asked with confusion in his voice. What had the gods to do with him not being able to speak her name? Or how the gods were even related for him to not be able to name the name of that being in front of him.

The being moved its hand, and a grand thing was created showing the physical world. The king was surprised by that act, as the act of creating things out of nothing was something only a god could do, but there she did the act that only a god could do.

>>My king, this is the sea of life<< she said. The king looked at the replica of the sea of life. The only thing that existed in the replica was a small planet with its sun and moon; otherwise, it would have been empty.

>>What is that?<< the king asked, looking down upon it and trying to touch it, but his finger went through them. Is that maybe not an actual creation but just an illusion? But I did not sense him creating an illusion using magic.

The being moved her hand, and the planet became larger while the sun and moon became smaller. The planet was now in focus, and it had a radius of 2 meters. The surface of the planet was mostly dead, covered by dark vines all across, with only a kingdom left that was green. There were, however, overlapping things in that kingdom, which the king did not understand as that was the first time, he had seen such things.

>>My king, the day you were put in a deep slumber, the god had abandoned us all we had left was gone. We did survive in the end, as the gods did not take our magic away, but we became things that were more like monsters than what we were previously. We are true monsters, unlike what we called monsters back in the old days<<

Hearing that the king was getting an idea of what had happened and what he meant with that, there was a sense of fury boiling up in the king to hear that they had been abandoned by the gods that they had served and for whom they had fought.

>>What is this body of ours?<< he asked the being while the king looked at the kingdom, trying to make sense out of it.

>>To survive, we had to adapt. No matter what time it was, time was our greatest enemy, and the magic, which we thought would never end, was declining in quantity, which is why we had to go beyond. We managed to create a spell that made us what we are now: timeless and spaceless beings who have to feed on dimensions<<

The being made the planet disappear and showed three thin floors. The planet was on the first floor; the one above had wandering small spirits, and the third had the gods. The physical realm has dimensions, my king, and to not disappear from existence, we have to keep on draining the dimensions off to make our existence remain in this place. We remain. The being then pointed to a point that was not on either the 3rd floor or outside there.

>>We are not part of existence; we are things that do not actually exist anymore as the gods threw us out of what they call the physical world. That is why, my king, we have to use fake bodies to interact with the physical world. When we cause chaos in the physical world by destroying things that the dimensions contain, we get nutrients. These nutrients are keeping us alive.<<

>>Why are you calling it nutrients?<<

>>At the same time, it makes our hunger calm down, my king.<<

The king understood more now, and his anger was reaching its limit. The gods threw them away when they were not needed anymore. He formed his hands to a fist, but their forms were still weird, so the king asked, >>Why is our form this way? Even if we are outside of time, our forms should not be this weird.<<

The being looked at the king, thinking of what it would say or how to explain it. Even the king wondered if she would explain the reason for them looking like this. She then took a deep breath and found the answer it would give to his king: >>My king, as I said, we had to go beyond the limitations of our bodies; time and space were not the only limitations but also the dimensions we were bound to. Using the magic, we made ourselves not bound by the idea of dimension, as it would make traveling harder and limit what our bodies could do, which is now why we are in this formless state, so we have more advantage; we have a body, but our body has no more shape. my king <<

This explained the king's question: why he felt,is hand even though he did not see it? Why could he move and touch while his body was seemingly not there?

>>What is the current state of the kingdom?<< He asked the being, and he smiled upon hearing that the king was already ready to do his duty as a king.

>>It is currently in a good state; we managed to make all the civilians not go into anarchy when you fell asleep. Of course, after we were not bound by time, it can be said that you had never been asleep for too long, my king, nor for too short; however, that is not important. We are regularly invading the planet to get nutrients and cling to existence while also keeping you with us, your king, but there is something that happened that we cannot explain.<<

Hearing that made the king curious about what could have happened that they could not explain. >>Speak, what is the thing that has happened?<< The king said, commanding him.

>>One of the scouts went around and found a human man, but after the destruction of its avatar, the scout himself had died too.<< The being said it with a grim tone.

The king opened his eyes wide, hearing that such a thing had happened. He may not understand how these avatars work, but he understood that this is not something that should happen. >> I see... I assume these avatars are like dolls that we can use to invade that planet, and no matter what happens to the doll, it should not affect our real bodies<< The king asked, nodding to the king's words that they were correct.

The king thought about what to do; he had to make a choice about what they should do. He was awake, but everything had changed entirely. The king had conflicting ideas, but he then spoke: >>I want that the amount of "avatars" that go to this planet be decreasing. I do not know how we keep time exactly, but, if possible, I want that every month, 1/10 of the avatars decrease so that they become less wary. I want every strategist that I had before my slumber to appear, as I plan to discuss with them what to do next and how we could increase the potential harvest from that planet<<

>>I shall do so, my king, as long as you live. I will also send a being to teach you the new powers that we have acquired by becoming like this.<<

>>So, it shall be my loyal subject<< the king said