1 Condemned

"What's wrong zero? If you can't handle a little beating like this, then I don't understand how you haven't died yet!"

After the slight pause for the gloating and frustrations being released by subject Seven to finish, the beatings continued until Kellen was on the verge of death's gates once again.

'Just another day in hell... I don't know how much longer I can mentally last because of these damn people. If it wasn't for these stupid experiments, I would've killed myself already just to finally have some peace.'

Kellen laid on the sterile white tiled floor of the secret laboratory covered in bruises and his own blood. He stared at the ceiling cursing his bad luck and core of existence, as footsteps from beside him drifted away. Seven wiped his bloodied fists on the white hospital like jacket he wore with his experiment subject number seven on its back. The cursed thick black number imprinted itself not only on the jacket's surface but burned in Kellen's mind like an invisible branding of fear and shame.

Kellen was one of the many experimental children that had been brought to the facility in hopes of their country being able to produce weaponry in the shape of perfect human soldiers.

Most children were around the age of sixteen, except for the unlucky case of Kellen, who was brought in when he was only twelve, and had been stuck here for six years already.

'Guess I should get back to my quarters before the laboratory enforcers catch me dawdling again.'

Painfully raising his body off the ground, Kellen's eyes began to turn a reddish tint as he cursed all the people in this damned hell.

Due to Kellen being seen as the weakest of the sixteen test subjects, he was often beaten and abused out of the frustrations of others after having the scientists' experiments performed on them.

'Ha, these damn "experiments"... I would use torture as a more accurate description and because of these fucking scientists; The sufferings never end.'

Unlike the others who had only been there for a year and believed they could someday escape, Kellen knew otherwise. Especially so, after enduring the past six years and being branded as an outsider within the test subjects for being weak.

To make matters worse, the scientists often isolated Kellen away from the other children, making it impossible for him to form even the tiniest of connections. They even had him wear a separate testing uniform, which consisted of a black jacket with the experiment number zero stitched in white threads on his back.

Wiping his blood smeared face on his jacket, Kellen walked back to his small lonely quarters, also located the farthest away from the other children, and laid down on his mattress.

Staring over at the small light that barely illuminated his room, Kellen complained to himself as a small tear dripped down the side of his face.

'I swear I will make it out of here one way or another and when I get that chance… All of you will suffer as I have.'

While regaining his previous anger, he stared at the digital clock, one of the very few items in his bare room, dreading for the next day of experiments and abuse to occur.

However, as he was slowly drifting off into his usual nightmares, a loud siren and red lights began flashing throughout the facility.

'What the hell?'

Confused by the sudden noise and lights, Kellen quickly ran over to his door and peered out. He saw multiple scientists running down the halls as if a demon was chasing them.

'What is going on? This has never happened before… Are we under attack?'

Curious at the turn of events, Kellen quietly pressed his face against the small cold glass window on the door to try and figure out what was happening.

"Shit! Everyone evacuate as soon as possible! An enemy missile strike has been spotted and was confirmed that this location is its target!"

"What are we supposed to do? Just leave all our lives' work here and abandon it!"

Multiple voices were heard ringing throughout the corridor and Kellen was able to soon identify the cause of alarm.

'Huh, maybe this is the day I am finally free of this torment. Even if it means death...'

Suddenly a blinding flash of white light encompassed his vision, temporarily stunning his senses.

'I guess this is finally it. I feel bad for the original batch of experiment subjects that had died in the earlier days of testing but I suppose I will see them again soon.'

Imagining this was his finally awaited rest, Kellen gladly excepted the blinding but warm light that encompassed his senses, and became relaxed while closing his eyes.

Feeling nothing unusual or lifting occurring, Kellen opened his eyes in confusion as he heard a strange but calming voice.

'What the hell is this?'

He recognized his fellow test subjects standing around him. Everyone wore a uniform expression of confusion at their unfamiliar setting. They found themselves all placed inside a celestial like room. Its grand appearance of pure white columns and rays of warm light from above gave it this unearthly ambiance. Kellen noticed most subjects were staring anxiously at something above as he also followed their gazes full of curiosity.

"Hello everyone, I am the deity that oversees our universe. I would first like to apologize for your inhumane and unfair treatment... After watching your pitiful existences being robbed from you by the gruesome acts of others from your own species; I have decided to show you, my creations, mercy. Since I believe I am partly responsible for your sufferings."

The melodic and calming voice seemed to emanate from the entire room around them, yet they all knew it came from the being drifting down to them from the lights above.

As the heartfelt apology continued, Kellen noticed streams of tears running down his fellow subjects faces. He scoffed at their unfitting emotions and noticed the pitiful smirking gaze of the goddess like being finally resting on him.

'If this failure of a goddess really pitied us then why couldn't she have intervened before we became slaves to these merciless experiments?' He wondered.

"I did not suffer six years of torture and genetic mutations to just be given an apology."

Mumbling his last thoughts on the matter accidentally out loud while crossing his arms, Kellen stared expectantly at the goddess awaiting some form of compensation for his sufferings.

"It seems some of you may be discontent with only an apology and I understand this. Therefore, I had prepared a gift for all of you ahead of time."

Swinging her arms in a grand motion above her head that revealed her pale hands from behind her golden sleeves, the deity continued to speak as light began protruding from her exposed hands.

"I have decided to give you all a fresh start in a new world known as Xystenia, where a realm of swords and magic exist. Although you should be wary since there are evils that exist in this world and have thrown off its balance... a little."

Hearing the prospect of this new world reminded Kellen of his peaceful childhood days, before the years of torture, when he used to play fantasy games that were described like this and rolled his eyes at the irony.

'So your telling me I went through these painful years of torture to be thrown into essentially a video game and along with these bastards who abused me as well. What bullshit is this?'

Unable to contain his emotions, some raging resentment was slightly leaked from his exterior that caused the golden goddess to slightly furrow her brows before resuming her speech.

"Although many of you probably resent me I ask that you take this opportunity of freedom and use it wisely to have a good life at last. My final gift that I will bestow you is what is known as "status." Every person after being born in Xystenia receives this blessing that allows you to see your status point distribution. However, this blessing will allow you to see other's status as well... And with that I wish you all meaningful lives."

After she ended her speech the goddess closed her eyes while bright light began reflecting from them as the existence of the sixteen children slowly faded away into the other realm.

Slowly bringing her hands back down to her sides the goddess let out a sigh as her previous gentle appearance became more twisted. A crooked smile plastered her face as she thought about the amount of bloodshed that would occur from sending those ruthless kids to her beloved system.

Her sadistic smile slightly wavered as she remembered the hostility the one kid had shown her.

"I don't like that kid's attitude... But him begging for my salvation once he breaks... I can't wait to hear his screams of agony while begging me for it!"

Smirking at her final comments to herself the goddess snapped her fingers and disappeared along with the celestial room.

"Ah! It was a success! Thank you everyone for your hard work and summoning."

Hearing a strange female voice echo through his ears, Kellen opened his eyes along with the rest of his fellow experimental subjects.

'Huh, it seems that goddess was being honest after all... Although I hate the cliché look of this circumstance.' Amused Kellen as he peered at the sight that laid before him.

The new location the children found themselves in was a largely decorated and grand palace like hall. Kellen smirked as he took in this scene before him.

A young girl around their age wearing clothes that befitted royalty stood before the group and behind her were rows of soldiers in sparkling white armor that lined up creating a corridor that led to the throne.

Surrounding these rows of soldiers were many people wearing wealthy medieval looking clothing and were all directing their attention towards the man on the throne.

On this luxurious golden throne resided what appeared to be the elderly king of this palace with a woman and a young boy, who looked to be around the age of twelve, standing beside him.

Kellen guessed the woman and boy were the respective queen and prince of the palace and swept his gaze towards the princess that was surrounded by white hooded priests, again awaiting another response.

"Young heroes you have been summoned to help our kingdom of Myria become the lead of the five kingdoms and destroy the demon folk. I hope we can all get along and share these great victories together!"

After finishing her spiel the princess curtly bowed and gestured towards the king but before the king began to speak an announcement was heard in the minds of all the summoned children.

|Quest Started: Help unite the five human kingdoms under Myria... Progress completed 0.00%|

As the notification rang throughout the children's ears, Kellen shook his head.

'Seems we don't have true freedom as I suspected...'

Confirming his previous intuitions Kellen diverted his attention back towards the king like the rest of the children.

"I welcome you fifteen heroes to our Myria kingdom and hope you will serve us well. Upon completion of different tasks and feats you will be rewarded accordingly!"

The king's voice boomed throughout the throne room and lifted the children's spirits at the mention of rewards. Of course, just simply being present in this new world without the presence of that horrifying laboratory had them all already relieved.

"However, the kingdom can only support those who deserve our strength and accommodations. Therefore, each of you heroes must meet a minimum basic status count of 50 or higher to be eligible for our support."

Gesturing his hand towards the priests after finishing his announcement, the king looked on expectantly as the priests brought in a large white rectangular stone that stood 2-3 meters in height.

Due to the ridiculous strengthening and mysterious genetic experiments the children went through, most of their basic stats combined already reached well over 75. However, as Kellen gazed at his own status screen his heart began to sink as he noticed his combined stats barely reached over 25. Just half of the stats required to be accepted by the kingdom and when compared to the other children.

'Of course my shitty luck closely follows me even in a different world.'

Sighing, Kellen walked up to the white measuring stone when it was his turn and placed his hand against its surface. Unlike the astounded gasps that surfaced from the numbers that appeared on the stone when the other children placed their hands on it, the throne room was filled with silence. As the measuring stone turned solid black with white numbers appeared that displayed his own status, Kellen felt an inadvertent chill run down his spine.

'I don't think this was suppose to change colors... I wonder what happens now?'

Glancing around at the shocked and frightened faces of the people in the throne room, Kellen began to have a sinking feeling arise in his stomach once again.

Rising shakily from his throne while pointing with his finger that wore a blue jeweled ring, the elderly king quickly shouted in a raspy voice, unlike his previous demeanor, with a dark and seething red face.

"Priests! Guards! Throw this spawn of evil into the demon domain where his kind belongs before he curses us all!"

'Whattt...'

Realizing his new circumstance Kellen quickly jumped back from the measuring stone and scanned the crowd for a path to escape as he dodged the incoming guards that lunged towards him.

"The demon is trying to escape!!!"

"Seize him now!!!"

Screams from countless people rang throughout the palace hall in fear of the seemingly dangerous youth resisting capture.

'What is wrong with these people? I'm clearly human like everyone else... I don't know what this demon domain could be but it probably can't be anything good. I need to get out of here before...'

Suddenly Kellen was entrapped by black chains that bound his body and prohibited any further resistance, while his fellow experiment subjects just watched the scene unfold while trying to contain their laughter.

He glanced over towards the priests as he noticed their chanting and quickly realized his mistake.

'Guess the priests were a little more resourceful than I would have expected. What the hell did I do in a previous life to deserve such cursed luck!'

Kellen began to ponder his unfortunate situations and life, while he was grudgingly dragged away from the throne room to another location in the palace by the guards and priests. He cursed his summoned companions under his breath and all humans in his god forsaken lifetime as he struggled against the guards' grasp.

While being dragged past countless rooms and hearing the droning chant of priests constantly surround him, Kellen began to seethe with anger as his eyes yet again turned a reddish tint.

'Seems like my freedom is just stripped away from me no matter what universe I'm in. Is it really such a sin to be weak?'

His pent up anger and frustrations from the constant turmoil thrown his direction could no longer be contained as he cursed the deity that had forsaken him in his "second life" as well.

'What the hell was with all that, "oh I hope you live a meaningful life", bullshit! Everyone and this shitty goddess obviously just wants to condemn me!'

As his anger began to reach its peak, the reddish tint that enveloped his eyes began to become a denser red until it was a bright crimson color. The whites of his eyes began vibrating slightly as they turned a pitch black.

The priests escorting him quickly became disturbed as they sensed the pressure beginning to be released by the demon. They quickly began reciting some different chants to restrict the demon's energy and the guards similarly began to react.

Once the pressure began to dwindle, a guard of a large build drew his sword and hit Kellen on the back of his head with the hilt. That was the last thing Kellen felt before his body crumpled from the blow and fainted, allowing his escorts an easier transport.

Groaning, Kellen leaned his head back but was stopped by something with a rough surface. Muffled voices entered his ears while an aching headache began to invade his senses from the back of his head.

Opening his eyes, he discovered his body was restricted by large leather straps on a cold metal like feeling chair that prohibited any movement.

'Where am I?'

He glanced around the small dimly lit and cramped room that looked like a scene straight out of a medieval dungeon, while his body became stiff after seeing a bunch of different bloody tools lined up on a table near him.

'Looks like I'm gonna be interrogated or something...'

Kellen wasn't scared since he went through extreme experiments akin to torture that most people didn't survive from, but he was still anxious like anyone else would be.

The sound of a metal door creaking caught his attention and he directed his gaze towards the noise. An old man that looked like a butler walked into the room while putting some gloves on his hands.

Seeing his prisoner was glaring at him, he released a sickening laugh while walking over to the table of tools before picking up a small blade. After picking up the tool he was searching for, Kellen's torturer walked over to his direction brandishing the knife with a sadistic grin.

"Let's see what a little demon like yourself looks like under the surface before the void takes you."

said the torturer with a twisted grin and sickening childish sparkle in his eyes.

For three days and nights Kellen was tortured repeatedly but refused to release any screams no matter what technique or sadistic thought his torturer had shown him.

Through all his sufferings one image remained in his mind that kept him from dying.

'That damn Goddess and this kingdom will regret their existence if I ever manage to escape!'

With this thought, Kellen survived the increasing atrocities that he faced before finally a group of guards came in to interrupt his current "interrogation".

Kellen's body was bloodied and exhausted but his eyes still held their fierce red gaze as he studied his new visitors. He had lost his hearing due to one of the methods of "interrogation" the old man had used but he could tell that he would soon be leaving this place judging from the disappointed look on the torturer's face.

Sure enough, the group of guards came over and unshackled him after dumping a bucket of water over his body in order to rid his body from the stains of blood that would get on their armor. Afterwards he was dragged by the guards through the different halls and stairways of the castle.

'Is this finally it?' he thought as he closed his eyes to rest from the continuous torture.

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End of first chapter guys! This story is in the WFP#30 so make sure to vote with power stones to help support my beginning as a writer. This chapter's length is pretty long but as it is the first chapter, I wanted to set the tone for the story. I'm still pretty new to writing so any critique and advice is always appreciated! If there are any errors leave a comment next to it and I'll fix it. I've had this idea for awhile now and it's great to get this first chapter out finally. I finished the second chapter as well and will release it after editing! Hope you enjoy the reading, much love guys, I'm off to finish editing... See you guys after a time skip::::::::..

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Speaking of a time skip... I've returned to hopefully improve this work for the better. After reading these first few chapters, it's crazy to see the difference in style and quality when I compare it to my current writing. Again, any suggestions are definitely helpful as I rework this and thank you for the support everyone has given me up to this point!