Aphorus Realm

Huh... Please don't possess me!

Uwahhh!

I opened my eyes, awakened from my nightmare. Faith was staring directly at me, frightening me. I wasn't used to her pale clear skin and her intense gray eyes that shattered my soul with her glance. After all... she was meant to be a ghost. The aura she gave off was eerie.

"Finally. Did you sleep well?" Faith recalled as she looked slightly impatient of how long I took to wake myself up. Her skin glowed as did her eyes. Yikes... I'd better not get on her bad side.

"I guess," No tired eyes here and I felt perfectly rested despite sleeping on dirt and leaves for the night.

"Good. You're gonna need as much energy as you can get today," Faith had a spiteful look to her pinkish lips. Despite looking like a kid, she certainly didn't act like one.

"How come?" I was curious as to what we were going to do today. I didn't exactly have any plans as I was deserted by my units... fair enough though. I probably would've left my post too if a huge stream of malicious energy was destroying my battalion.

"I'm going to show you the Aphorus realm, and train you there."

"Ahoreus realm?"

"Aphorus realm," she corrected me, irritated that I had pronounced it wrong, "And it's a realm only us phantasms, and some special humans can access. The problem is... the place has been overrun from the Demon Kings monsters, ever since the Demon King has been reborn."

"And I'm supposed to help how exactly?"

"You are on a journey to stop the Demon King. Naturally, if you succeed, the Demon King would no longer have jurisdiction over the Phantasm Realm. That would mean us Phantasm spirits could have our homes back."

Mmm... I mean, it sorta made sense. Although, I didn't exactly know why she needed my help when she could've asked someone else. Someone with way more power than me. She knew I was weak.

"I know..." Faith abruptly replied as if she had read my mind, (she probably did), "That's why I'm going to train you. You're weak. Useless. Pathetic," I was starting to get angry at her words, "And you're easy to anger. Impulsive."

Uh. DANG. She completely insulted me. Although, that was all true. "R-relax... I get your point, missy ghost."

"...Don't call me that," S-scary. Faith broke out of character; her serious expression being replaced by a nasty grimace that threatened me.

"E-eh... S-sorry. What should I call you?"

"Faith. I'm okay with that. Well... just Faith for now. Anyways."

She sounded like she was going to say something else... Eh, I guess Faith it is for now. Her usual composed expression returned.

"I should tell you a bit about the Phantasm Realm before I take you there.

"Alright, I'll listen." That was probably best. I didn't know much besides spirits and all that. And now I was talking to one...

I silently hoped that I didn't get on her bad side. I've seen her power, even if it was just a glimpse of it.

"Phantasm realm was a primary realm for Phantasm spirits. As I said earlier, the realm was overtaken by monsters. From there... they created this sort of Dungeon-Tower where only Phantasm spirits can enter along with a Human spirit. Originally, the plan was to just pick up some deadbeat human and take over the tower and drive back the monsters, but there seems to be some problems with that..."

"Such as?"

"Ever since the new arrival of the Demon King, all Phantasm spirits have had their power drastically cut down by over 80%. The weaker spirits are back down to regular human power levels. Even my power has been greatly reduced. Not only that, but some of the monsters are strong. Ridiculously strong. Make sense?"

I nodded my head. She was actually fairly good enough at explaining things. But I had more questions about the dungeon-tower she mentioned.

"Uh, so to get things right. You're going to take me to Aphorus realm and train me so I can become strong enough to defeat these monsters?"

"In a way, yes. However, there's a lot more to it. There's a tower for each Kingdom. Essentially, if you want to defeat the Demon King, you'll have to liberate both the Kingdom and the tower in the Aphorus realm."

Hahhhh... that sounds like a lot of work. Man, I lost all my units to start with. How was I going to do one or the other?

"Don't worry. You'll be fine. I've been here way longer than you. I'm here to help you, serving as your navigator for both the Aphorus realm and this World," By now, it was pretty clear that Faith was reading my mind. She seemed pretty powerful. She did deflect that attack from that huge Demon monster last night. I think I can rely on her...

"Heh... Let's now waste anytime then," I gave her an eager smile, "I'm gonna get way stronger!"

If this was my only chance of leveling up and increasing my stats... so be it!

"Just so you know, time doesn't exist in Aphorus realm. You realize what that means?"

I shook my head. I think it meant that we could stay a while in there?

"Correct," Faith's violent grimace returned, "I'm going to spend a long time making your training feel like absolute hell!"

Faith hovered over to me and put her small hands on her neck, muttering a spell. My vision became dizzy; everything around me turned distorted and blurry. The last thing I saw were the forest trees... and everything turned black after that.

Whoooosh...

My eyes were covered by pastel-white hands. Those hands were removed and the scenery in front of me unfolded. It was just... an open field, with tall rice stalks covering the land. It looked like a regular farming field. Well, besides from the occasional trees, of course.

I turned around. Faith stood there. She had to tippytoe to cover my eyes. For a ghost with such a threatening presence, she was pretty short. I think her occupied body was from a little girl.

"Nope, I just became a Phantasm spirit at a young age. This is my true body," Jeez, Faith had a knack for reading my mind. That was interesting, though. I wondered how you become a phantasm spirit. Then again, that wasn't important right now.

"So, this is Aphorus realm? Where's the tower?" I looked around. All I saw was an open, vast field. No outshining tower, or even a single building in sight.

"Eheh..." Faith nervously giggled, which surprised me, "You see, we have to be at the Kingdom in order to access the tower."

"...Then what's the point in bringing me here!"

"You talk too much. I already told you. To train."

"And how am I supposed to train? Pushups?!?!"

Faith pointed a finger behind me. I turned around and a pack of demonic wolves stared head on at me with fluttering red eyes. I could tell they were demonic by the dark energy they emitted. Only monsters that emitted dark energy were demonic, and likely sourced from the Demon King.

"This is your first challenge, Valiant Vanguard! Just know that I won't be helping you at all!" Oh gee, that certainly was reassuring.

I unsheathed my flaming broadsword and assumed an offensive sword fighting position by turning to the side and sticking the blade out towards the wolves. Faith backed out and watched me from afar.

The wolves began to entrap me in a circle. Not good. If they were successful, I would be in a bad position since they could attack from all sides. All 7 of them...

Here's what I'll do. Maybe it'll get me in a better position.

With my left hand, I reached out into a pocket and pulled out a throwing knife. I aimed it at a wolf to the right to me; it missed. That wasn't the point, though. While all the other wolves were fixated on the knife, I swiftly swung at a wolf to the left of me while it was distracted. I missed, but a small fireball hit directly at its eyes, temporarily blinding the wolf. Good hit!

I swung again, and in a clean stroke the wolf's head came off. I dashed and jumped over the wolf, escaping the circle the wolves entrapped me in. The only problem now was...

I was being chased by the rest of the wolf pack! Huu-huaaaahhhh!

I ran for cover to a nearby tree. I was hoping to climb it, or something. But... how would I outrun a back of wolves! It's only natural that they'd catch up to me...

A wolf latched it's bare fangs onto my leg, sinking it's teeth deep into my flesh as blood poured out. I swung wildly and uncontrolled at it. Mid-swing, another wolf came and stopped my attack by biting my arm. The other wolves caught up and began to helplessly maul and tear apart my body.

"F-faith..." Those words helplessly escaped me as my body was being tortured, absolutely rampaged on by a pack of angered wolves. She said she wasn't going to help me...

I almost blacked out from the loss of blood. Faith hovered over to where I was, and a few low powered lightning bolts later she had killed all the wolves.

She walked over to me, kneeling down and put her fingers on my forehead while she recited a spell. "Gnilaeh noitcerruseR!" My mauled, chewed up body was instantly healed up again as my flesh mended itself back to normal.

Faith stood back up and I stayed on my knees, bowing down to her. "Th-thank you! Faith..."

"Pathetic," her voice reminded me of Iomene, "I don't even know where to start with you."

I really was... pathetic.

"Get up. We're going to go try something easier."

With that began my training arc. Faith took me up to a smaller grouping of weaker monsters. I spent the rest of the day being helplessly brought to the brink of death by monsters that overpowered me, Faith reviving me every time and reminding me how useless I was.

"Cmon! Pick up your Sword you incapable coward!" Faith began to teach me how to sword fight. Though... she beat me every time.

By the end of the first day in Aphorus realm, I was convinced this truly was going to be hell.

Faith took me to a secluded cabin in the woods and made me sleep on a bed, which I assumed to be hers. And with that ended my first day.

If every day was going to be like this... I don't think I can survive!