Alright, how should I start this?

Well, let's just say that it started with a voice, calling upon me, beckoning me, trying to pull me out from reality, making me questioning about my own existence. I didn't know since when did I hear that voice, but somehow, I was aware of it long time ago.

But first, why would that voice try to reach me? I had grown to believe that I am nothing special, just another useless addition within our rotten society. My name is Yuuto Kobayashi, just a normal teenage boy with average grade, not-so-impressive look and a pretty bad luck. Apparently I inherited this bad luck from my late father, who died due to slipping on a banana peel. And I lived with my mother ever since.

But hey, my background isn't so important here. Let's talk about the voice again. For the first two weeks after hearing that voice, I freaked out. Let's imagine hearing a disembodied voice while you were watching porno in front of your desktop, that would be pretty awkward… and surprising too. But after that, I somehow got used to that voice.

Sometimes, I tried to respond to that voice, but I didn't know whether that voice could hear me back. And despite hearing that voice almost every day, I didn't know what it was trying to tell me. Well, the words 'call' and 'savior' were often repeated, but those words still didn't make sense.

Until one day when the voice suddenly became clearer. It was when I was reading a manga on my bed while wearing my favorite shirt and denim pants. It felt like hearing someone whispering to my ears. It was a soft, gentle voice of a girl.

"O hero of lands far away, answer my call and be a savior of our world."

It sounded something like that, and I reacted to it almost immediately after hearing that. The voice sounded like it was pleading to me, asking for my help. That voice seemed to instill this feeling of protectiveness into myself, which caused me to answer immediately to that call of help.

"I will help you."

And before I knew it, I was sucked into a vortex of light and the last thing I heard was a faint voice, thanking me for my willingness to help as my consciousness faded.

Blade/Arc

Chapter 01: Into the New World

"Oww… where am I?" I grumbled as I slowly regained my consciousness. I felt like having my own body lying on the ground so I groggily got up before I found myself in the middle of a forest. My mind barely registered what's going on as I remembered the vortex of light that sucked me after I answered that voice of calling. Groaning, I rose onto my feet, feeling a bit nauseous as I managed to stand.

So, let's make a mental check-up.

After hearing a voice and answering it, I somehow was sucked into a vortex of light. Okay, already mentioned that, there's no need to be redundant. What else?

Okay, after waking up, I found myself in the middle of a forest. Yes indeed, I was certain that I was in the middle of a forest as there were trees and the sounds of critters and animals around me.

So, I made a deduction out of those two things; being sucked into a vortex of light and finding myself in the middle of a forest. Somehow, that vortex of light had brought me here, into this forest. And this forest didn't look like any forest I remembered due to the odd shapes of the trees around me. It felt like being in an entirely different world, where the trees had some spiral-shaped branches which was next to impossible to find in our world.

That's it. I found myself being thrown into an entirely different world. Good work, Sherlock! So, what should I do next? I needed to do something, because apparently, I was thrown into a suspicious-looking forest, without proper preparation and equipments, totally exposed to any danger that the forest might pose. The sounds of animals inside the forest didn't help either.

First, I needed to protect myself from any danger, so I got myself a wooden stick which was sturdy enough to protect myself by whacking it onto anything that could endanger me. I examined the weight of the stick. Not too heavy, but not too fragile, so it's good to protect myself. Then, I should search a way out because staying in the middle of a suspicious-looking forest wasn't a very good idea.

And somehow, my inherited bad luck didn't leave me as I was thrown into this new world as I heard a suspicious sound. It sounded like someone was stepping on a twig, breaking it. The sound of breaking twig made me turn around, only to see a figure, clad in brown hooded cloak. Instinctively, I raised my wooden stick and shouted, "Who are you?"

And the cloaked figure was surprised as I shouted. Then, the figure gasped (which sounded suspiciously feminine) before the figure pulled back its hood, revealing a girl's face. "Watch out!" she cried.

And at that moment, a large creature appeared from behind, trying to tackle me. So, the girl charged towards me, pushing me down to the ground. The large creature barely missed me, but it regained its footing as it focused on both of us.

"Damn it…" the girl said as she was still on top of me. I took my time looking at her, only to find her to be absolutely gorgeous. She looked a bit pale, but her ivory-colored hair and blue eyes made up for that. And then, I found out that she had pointy ears, something that could only be seen in movies and stuff. Then the girl got up before she removed her cloak, revealing her slender yet warrior-like built.

Apparently the girl with pointy ears wore something like a character from fantasy story would wear. She wore leather armor, complete with a shoulder pad on the right side of her shoulder. She also wore greaves and thigh-length socks, and also a somehow short skirt. Part of me was wondering about how efficient her getup in a battle because her outfit somehow exposed more flesh than protecting it. I mean, come on, her thighs were exposed! It wasn't so efficient against archers!

And then, I looked at the large creature. That creature resembled a wolf, only bigger and looked meaner. It was white in color and I could see it drooling at it looked at us with feral, wild eyes. I flinched, wishing that I was dreaming all along. I tried to pinch my cheek to make sure whether I was dreaming or not, but decided against it because it would look weird if that pointy eared girl saw me pinching my own cheek.

"You…" the girl spoke to me. "You better run away as far as you can…" she said with assertive voice. Her voice sounded like she was in charge here. As she said that, her right hand reached the hilt of her sword (why didn't I notice that?) that was hanging on her waist before she unsheathed the sword, revealing a glinting, silvery blade with some runic writings inscribed on its surface. "You better hurry…" she spoke as she brandished the sword. "I will try to hold it off!"

Hold it off? That sounded so unconvincing but I didn't say anything as the pointy eared girl charged towards the giant wolf. In mere seconds, the girl managed to close the distance between her and the giant wolf by moving extremely fast. My eyes barely saw her moving. She brought up her sword over her head before she swung it down, leaving a silver trail as she attacked the beast.

As for me, I was incredibly astonished as the attack managed to hurt the beast. I should've left her to save my sorry ass, but I was too preoccupied to move. After that first strike, the girl moved again, attacking the giant wolf from another side. She moved inhumanly fast and the wolf growled as the girl attacked it from every direction.

At first, I thought that she might be able to defeat that monster, but I was proven wrong as the giant wolf suddenly let out a loud cry. The cry managed to stun the pointy-eared girl, enough for the monster to slam its head onto the girl's body. The girl screamed in pain as she was sent flying by the force of slamming. She also lost her grip on her sword, and the sword flew towards me. Luckily it slid on the ground before stopping near my feet.

As for the girl, she crashed onto a large tree. Blood could be seen coming out from the edge of her lips and she looked like she was in total pain. She was about five meters away from me and when she noticed me, she shouted, "Why didn't you run yet? Run, you idiot!" apparently, despite being injured, she still had enough strength to yell like that.

And knowing that the pointy-eared girl was incapacitated, the giant wolf focused on me. It snarled viciously as it slowly walked towards me. It apparently knew that I was weaker than the girl it defeated a few seconds ago, much to my dismay. I gritted my teeth, imagining what it would do to me with those sharp teeth and sharp claws. It wasn't a pretty thing to imagine, I'd assure you.

And yet, I still couldn't let myself look like a coward. I looked at the wooden stick in my hand, and as I stood before the giant beast, the wooden stick felt like a toothpick, so I discarded it and picked the pointy eared girl's sword near my feet. Surprisingly, despite being heavily-decorated and heavy-looking, it's so light and very comfortable to wield. But even so, I still had no experience in using swords, and there's no way I could do the same fast stunts the pointy-eared girl did earlier, so it didn't change much at all.

So, the beast was before me, and it was about to attack me. But, I felt something different running within my body. My head felt clearer and the sword in my hand felt like being merged into my body, well, metaphorically. Then, I realized that the sword was glowing, which surprised both the monster and the pointy eared girl. The runic writings on the blade released some kind of warm, brilliant glow which radiated energy into my own being. I could feel strength and power flowing within my veins. My senses heightened, my vision sharpened and my confidence doubled.

"N-no way…" the pointy eared girl spoke as she saw her sword glowing. I glanced at her for a while before I focused on the giant wolf. The monster backed off, seemingly intimidated by the sudden surge of power within myself. My grip on the sword tightened as I stepped forward confidently, wielding the glowing sword.

"I shall put you to rest, beast…" I didn't know where did that come from (and it sounded cool), but I said that as I raised the sword over my head. The wolf noticed this and tried to attack me, but I swung it down, releasing an arc of energy force, which looked like a beam of light. The attack managed to completely obliterate the monster into bits. A few seconds after that, the light faded and everything reverted back to normal.

I looked at the place where the wolf previously was. The ground had a large pit-like mark on it, and it obviously came from that beam of light I released earlier. I couldn't believe what was happening, because apparently, I managed to kill a monster with a beam of light from a sword.

"I… I killed it?" I muttered.

"Who are you?"

I turned around and saw the pointy eared girl with a stern expression on her face. Despite being injured, she looked apparently fine, but she looked pissed. She was holding a dagger in her hand and was pointing that sharp object towards me. Stupefied, I gave her a lame respond. "Excuse me?"

"I say 'who are you'?" the pointy eared girl repeated harshly. I thought that she might not be taking the fact that I used her sword to kill that beast kindly. "What did you do to my Noblesse?" she asked, looking at her sword in my hand.

So, the sword was named Noblesse. "Umm… I have no idea…" I replied. "Actually, I have no idea what was happening, and it's not wise to point a sharp, dangerous thing in front of someone's face. So… would you kindly lower that thing?" I asked her.

The pointy eared girl studied my face for a few seconds before she lowered her dagger. She scowled she held up her hand. "Give me back my sword," she asked. "I don't know what you had done to it, but Noblesse is rightfully mine," she ordered me.

"W-well, if you say so…" I nervously handed her the sword.

"Thank you," the girl thanked me before she sheathed the sword back. "So… first question, who are you? What are you doing in the middle of the Forest of Illusion?" she asked.

So, this place was named 'Forest of Illusion'? Well, with those odd-shaped branches for the trees around here, the name sounded oddly appropriate. "You see… actually, I don't know what happened to me. When I came to my senses, I was here…" I chuckled nervously. "So, I am lost."

The pointy eared girl studied my face skeptically before she sighed. "Well, I guess I shall apologize then. And an introduction might be in order…" she said. "My name is Ennis Heartstring, the Elf Paladin of the Order of Shining Heart. You may call me Ennis…"

Wow, her name even sounded like a fantasy character. And she was apparently an elf, thus explaining her pointy ears. "Nice to meet you, Ennis," I said. "My name is Yuuto Kobayashi, apparently a human without anything special," I introduced myself.

"Human…?" Ennis frowned as she looked at me from head to toe. "I see. That explains the lack of magical flow around you…" she stated. "Well, it's rare to see a human around here since Davren is populated by elves and sorcerers, but I think we need to get out of this forest and sort things out."

"That sounds like a good idea…" I nodded. "So, where should we go?" I asked.

"We'll go to the nearest town, Flintlock to resupply and rest," Ennis told me. "Considering that you're able to use my Noblesse, perhaps I should bring you to Davren Capital. So, you're sticking with me for a while…" she said. Somehow, the way she talked sounded like she was the one with authority here, and I couldn't even say a word. "Any question?" she asked.

"No…" I shook my head.

"Good," Ennis smiled, and somehow, her smile looked very cute for someone who was so assertive and demanding. "Well then, let's get out of this place," she turned around. After taking several steps, she stopped. "By the way, don't tell anyone about my defeat today. I have a reputation to keep…" she looked behind, giving me a menacing glare. "If you can't keep your mouth shut, I'll make sure to gut you alive with my Noblesse…" she said in threatening manner. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes, ma'am…!" I answered.

"Good…" Ennis smiled before she walked forward and I followed her. Part of me was wondering about what would happen to me in the future. I didn't know the significance about the voice and the vortex of light and this new world, but I got a feeling that sooner or later, I would be able to learn the truth about this. But first, I needed to keep up with this strange, temperamental, so demanding elf girl first, or I might be gutted alive with her sword. And it would be the last thing that I wanted to happen on me in this strange, new world.

TO BE CONTINUED