The True Beginning

Magnus found himself surrounded by other people wearing confused expressions just like him.

"Is this... the next Trial?"

Someone muttered something, piquing Magnus' interest as he looked around.

He saw familiar clothing tastes and faces that did not look as foreign as they normally did.

'Earthlings...' Magnus was stunned.

It had been such quite some time since he saw people from his homeworld. He almost forgot what they were like.

'Everyone has an Otherworldy air now,' Magnus thought as he literally floated in midair, catching the eye of the people present.

Whoom!

A shockwave of repulsive gravity pulsed out of Magnus at that moment without the need for a chant.

It shook half of the people awake.

"What are you looking at?" Magnus gave the people around him a glare. Two of them averted their gazes in surprise.

'1-star threat!' They both inwardly exclaimed. Magnus inwardly chuckled.

"Now, now," A bald, caucasian man spoke with a condescending tone, "Please don't be so immature now, boy. We're all Earthlings here. How about we work together, yes?"

"Indeed. There's only six of us here, after all." An African woman nodded, seemingly in agreement with the man's words, "If we are to kill a monster from these so-called ancient times, we need to work together."

Magnus' lips twitched. Working together was out of the question, but Magnus didn't want to get into conflict so soon. In any case, his Curse only acted up if he was directly working together with people to achieve a goal at the same time. If it was a business relationship akin to his contract with Hughe, then it was fine.

If Magnus could find a loophole in the way his comrades are designated, then that would be for the best.

"Alright, then shall we start with introductions?" He spoke stiffly, "Call me Magnus."

The caucasian man raised a brow before saying, "Adelric."

The African woman spoke next, "Kwashi."

Then the other three introduced themselves. Kohaku, Sophia, and Robin. Japanese, English, and American respectively.

With Adelric seemingly from Germany, they were from all around the Earth.

"So," Magnus started, "Working together... How are we going to do that? I have killed monsters before, and I am pretty sure I can kill them again. What about you guys? Any experience?"

"I, for one, have been hunting monsters in the Monster Continent. I know what they're like." Kwashi flicked her hair, "That was where I started."

"As for me," Adelric began, but he was instantly cut off.

"—Duck!" He yelled as he rolled onto the ground.

Everyone followed suit as a white, duck-shaped, car-sized beast indeed came swooping down towards them. The wind blew as the duck passed over their heads, kicking up dust from the barren mountainside that they had found themselves on.

As they looked up to see if the issue had passed, Magnus couldn't help but notice that a figure could be seen being held by the duck.

"Ah! Help!" Robin screamed as he was caught in its webbed talons.

"I am the cause of creation,

The maker of stars!"

Magnus responded in haste.

"To me!" He grabbed out with his hand and pulled.

Instantly, gravity changed, and the giant duck slowed down to a stop. No matter how much it flapped, it couldn't go further.

"Help him!" Magnus yelled out, and the others finally reacted.

Kwashi was the swiftest among them. She darted forward and, with a swing of her fist, slammed her entire weight onto the bird's neck after a mind-shocking leap into the air.

Crack!

A cringe-inducing sound sent shivers down everyone's spine as they heard the beast wail. The duck writhed its neck in pain as it quacked in resentment.

It had yet to die.

After that, there was a blur of motion.

The next thing Magnus knew was that Kwashi had slammed into him after getting smacked by the duck's wings. He was sent flying together with her, and his grip on the bird loosened enough for it to start escaping again.

Powerful gusts of wind pressed down on the other three Earthlings as they helplessly watched Robin get stolen away.

"Damn it!" Kwashi swore as she tumbled out of the small crater of leaves she had created after hitting Magnus.

"Can you give me the ability to fly?" She looked at the boy who groaned as he stood up.

"I can," Magnus replied.

"Good," Kwashi then looked to Adelric, "You. Throw me."

Adelric nodded grimly as he wrapped his fingers around Kwashi's body.

Click!

Magnus flicked his fingers and instantly, Kwashi found that gravity had disappeared. She felt light. Her clothes fluttered in the air, and suddenly the air around her felt nonexistent. Nothing bore down on her shoulders.

And then, in the next moment, she found out that she was launched into the sky.

Crack!

Streaking through the air, Kwashi slammed into the escaping bird once more. There was another wail of agony as the bird fell from the sky and entered Magnus' range of attack.

Magnus pulled at it, and its descent rapidly accelerated. The duck grew to become a meat meteor as it plummeted at great speeds.

Luckily, the bird had ended up letting go of Robin at the moment it was punched, and thus Magnus was able to save him by reversing his gravity. The man from the States wasn't going to turn into a pancake just yet.

Thud!

Just a split second after Magnus did that, the duck was slammed into the ground with a loud impact. Another cloud of dust was kicked up, and everyone waited with bated breath.

Even after a minute, no more sounds came from it.

It was dead.

And Magnus suddenly felt a surge of weakness assault him.

'My Curse has finally started acting up,' He thought, 'But luckily, there aren't too many of them. I can bear with this weight for the time being.'

It wasn't as bad as the time he worked for the corpse disposal team, nor would he spend as much time with them as he did with Mallow. Things were doable. He could work with the group for a few hours.

But after that, he would have to find a way to separate from them.

'I have to do things quickly.' Magnus told himself.

"Alright,"

Kwashi broke the silence as she walked towards the giant duck.

"Since we're going to need food, how about we cut this bad boy up? We'll surely have hearty meals today!"

"You do that," Magnus nodded, "I'll help Robin with his wounds."

"I'll help too!" Sophia took that time to step in, "I studied first aid when I was in college."

"Then Kohaku and I shall help Kwashi," Adelric grunted as he unsheathed the bolo that was slung at his waist.

It reminded Magnus of the Weapon Scroll he had.

His greed for power was telling him to open it later when he had a better history to account for. He could feel that perhaps now wasn't a good time. Moreover, he had yet to discover a need to wield a weapon.

And so, the team split up.

One side tended to the wounded, while the other butchered a beast they had never encountered before.

The first few minutes of the Trial was going 'well.'

And it was just going to get 'better.'

.

.

.

"Humans, at last," A hungry voice growled in the darkness, "I can finally feast!"

A humanoid monster growled as it hid within a cave at a cliffside. It kept sniffing around as if it had caught on to something that smelled delectable.

"One, two, three, four, five, six..." It counted with deformed fingers

"Six! Haha! There are six snackos for me!"

It cackled in a manner that almost rivalled Magnus.

.

.

.

Without knowing about the targets placed on their backs, the group continued to work. Robin was successfully given first aid, and large chunks of meat had been extracted successfully from the beast's carcass.

They huddled together around a fire as a dry wind blew, trying to keep said flame alive. The reason they did not look for cover was the fact that they had no idea where to go. The entire place was a barren slope.

"Does anyone know where we are?" Adelric said, with slight frustration in his voice.

No one replied to him. No one knew the answers he was seeking.

Also, the temperature, for some reason, was rapidly dropping. It had gone from a midday heat to freezing temperatures in minutes. It was a baffling sensation that the resident physics student, Kohaku, was left baffled by.

Everyone felt the shivers and thus scooted closer to the flames.

"This might be the reason why there's barely any life," Robin muttered as he grimaced from his wounds. "It's all dust and rocks."

"So how are we supposed to find monsters?" Sophia asked.

To which, Kwashi perked up, "Extreme environments like these are perfect for monsters."

She continued, "As long as we act vulnerable, they will come to us. It's a common tactic to lure in weaker monsters in the Monster Continent."

"The only problem is, we lack information," Magnus replied, "Pray tell, what do you Monster Continent inhabitants do when a monster beyond your power levels appears?"

Kwashi tilted her head in thought for a moment, "We cry. Simple as that."

"..."

Such an answer left Magnus speechless as he grabbed a stick of roasted duck and took a hefty bite out of it.

"Then let's eat while we can," He finally found the right words to say, "Our presumable last supper,"

Growl!

Just as he said that, a growl echoed out. It made Magnus freeze in place for but a split second.

'Did I jinx things?' He thought to himself as he hungrily chewed on his food and escaped into the skies.

Unfortunately, doing so made things colder, but it saved him from what happened next.

Fwoosh!

There was an odd blur that zoomed past the group. It left everyone else stunned at the speed of whatever being that was.

At least the duck was slow enough to react to.

This...

This was something else.

Speed on another level.

"Run!" Kwashi screamed her lungs out as a head flew into the air.

It was Robin's. The weakest of the group.

Blood streamed out from his headless body as it slumped into the ground.

Dead.

Surely dead.

"Magnus!" Sophia pleaded, "Gravity!"

Click!

Magnus obliged by snapping his fingers, and everyone else found themselves floating. They pushed off the ground just as another blur zoomed past.

Swish!

Another fountain of blood splattered their faces, as another head went flying.

Kohaku was gone.

"Shit! Shit, shit!"

Alderic tried his best to move in the air, trying to swim his way upwards. He looked silly, but desperation had consumed him.

All he wanted to do was survive, just like everyone else. He didn't care about anything other than that.

"Why are we so slow?!" He demanded, "Makes us rise faster!"

"There are limitations to my powers!" Magnus said as he pulled himself further up. He didn't know just how high this monster could jump, and he wasn't taking any chances.

The temperature dropped further with every metre he scaled, but that did not matter to him. And the cold wind blew, giving him shivers.

'Better than dying without knowing how,' Magnus thought to himself as his heart kept beating rapidly inside his chest.

And just as Magnus thought that they were all high enough, the blur of movement leapt up from the ground.

It was clearly still unsatisfied with killing only two.

It wanted more.