Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

An ear-piercing scream woke me up from the coma-like sleep I was in after I was thrown into the wall and passed out.

Looking around, I noticed I was in the castle's medical facility. I personally never saw the inside of this place, but my rounds around the castle grounds usually have me passing through here once or twice.

I was lying on a bed with two other beds in a row on both sides of the one I was in, but they were empty. There was a tiger therian in what looked like a small office near the entrance. When she noticed I was awake, she got up and came directly to me.

"Oh good, you're awake," she said as she got close enough and placed her hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me back into the bed. "Try to not get up, your spine got quite the damage from the hit you took."

"What happened?" I asked her.

"They found you unconscious down in the castle's vault in a pool of your own blood," she started. "Apparently, you caused quite the fuss, something about the vault having been opened, and the captain of the royal knights tried to behead you while you were unconscious, but the king spared you until you could explain."

I tried to move my hand to scratch my head, but handcuffs wrapped around my arms and on the bed stopped me from moving my hands too much.

"This is just in case you try to escape," she explained. "Now, are you feeling any pain?"

Her eyes turned blue as she looked me head to toes, a small tingling sensation accompanied her gaze.

"No, none," I answered. I was still confused as to what had happened.

I was trying to evade that ghost dragon Vinicius created, and then I used it against him, and then I saw the runes protecting the vault's door turning green and–

"Was there anyone else with me!?" I half-shouted to the woman, who took a few steps back as I had jumpscared her a little, but she regained her bearings before answering me.

"No, there wasn't anyone else there," She said, "At least, none that they brought to me. The king will want to talk with you, please wait here."

With that, she left the medical room. I looked at both my arms and legs and saw that I had those cuffs in every member, and looking closer I could see that they had runes all over them. I wondered what they did, but I found out the next moment, when I noticed the HUD on my vision that my skill, [RPG HUD], provided constantly to me was nowhere to be found.

I tried to use [Game Inventory], but no luck as well. It was as if the skills were chained… just like me. I understood. The chains blocked skills and served as a way to physically restrict me. It makes sense that a society with magic would come up with a way to imprision unlawful magic users.

With nothing else to do, I lay back on the bed and waited, and waited, and waited…

It took three hours before a group of knights came for me. They barely spoke to me, even when I tried to ask them questions. They only unlocked the chains on the bed, locking them on another pair of chains that they had, locking me to them so I couldn't escape, not that I wanted to, of course.

They, rather forcefully, dragged me to a part of the castle I've never been to, and brought me to a white room with barely anything but a single chair and a throne.

The guards made me sit on the chair and locked the chains to the chair and left the room, leaving me alone.

The length of the chain allowed me some movement, but didn't allowed me to get up from it. I stayed seated on the chair for what looked like an hour before another door opened and the king himself entered.

"I am not to be disturbed," he said to the captain of the royal guard who accompanied him.

"But, your majesty," he tried to interject, but the king cut him off.

"I've said it already. I want to speak with the suspect alone. Is that understood?" He asked the captain of the royal guard. An elf with long light blue hair that already served five different kings, or so I heard.

"...Yes, sir. I will do as you command," he begrudgingly said.

The king nodded and walked to the throne as they closed the door to the room.

"So," He started. The king had golden hair that went to his shoulders, dark brown eyes, and a burn mark over his face that he refused to treat. During our forced schooling, we learned that when he was just a kid, there was an accident in the city, the entire royal family was killed, but he was the sole survivor and now bore the scar on his face to remember his lost family.

"I want to hear from your mouth about what happened," He said. "Don't even try to lie to me. The entire room has a truth field around it."

Lying to him never even crossed my mind. I didn't know why they even needed something like this for me. I would gladly cooperate with them on whatever they needed. We were their summoned heroes, after all. We were here to help defend this world from the vampire lord and his army of half-demons.

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"I am waiting," the king said.

"Sorry," I apologized before starting to describe the events from the moment I felt the pull the armor I was granted and how Vinicius was trying to steal something from the vault, as well as the dragon he summoned to try to kill me before something happened with the runes on the door and I was blasted to the wall.

The king stayed silent while I explained, and after I was finished, he closed his eyes in thought. I waited patiently for him to finish thinking.

It didn't take long before the king reopened his eyes and snapped his finger, my chains clattering to the ground as they were released from my arms. At the same time, I saw my HUD reappearing on my vision as my skills remanifested.

"Before you think I trust you," the king said, cutting me off before I could express my gratitude for his understanding. "I've made a deal a long time ago, and am merely completing my end of the deal."

"I don't understand," I said, confusion on my face.

"It isn't your place to understand," the king said coldly, then he pulled a pendant from his clothes, and a magic circle appeared beneath us, and when I noticed we were both in the same chamber I fought Vinicius in.

The chamber itself was filled with holes in the walls from the ammunition Vinicius had conjured for his guns and explosion holes from his grenades. But what caught me off guard was the vault itself.

The vault doors were wide open, revealing rows upon rows of a bluish-gold metal and a small counter with neatly stacked white coins that glowed softly. There were other things inside the vault as well, Shelves with books and scrolls bound by magical chains all around them, various weapons and armors.

The only thing out of place with the rest of the items in the vault was right in the middle of it. A pair of pillars made out of pure white light, so dense that I could tell with a single glance that it was solid, and two doors made out of the same material as the pillars. Both of them were covered in so many runes that you couldn't even notice them if you were a few steps back.

The doors were open, though, but there was nothing on the other side, or better yet, all I could see behind the open doors of this gate-looking thing was the rest of the vault.

It was clear that this gate was the genesis seal Alex told me about, but what I didn't understand was what it was holding, as it was just a door to nothing in particular.

"As you can see," the king started speaking. I almost jumped as I had forgotten he was there with me. "The genesis seal has been opened. By your story, Vinicius was the one who did it."

"Yes," I said, looking at the seal once more. "He said he was taking what was his by right."

"I see. This certainly complicates things," the king sighed and started muttering to himself. "How did you know?"

"What?" I asked.

I looked over at the king when he didn't answer and saw him with a red crystal on his hand before he made a move with his hand, and the crystal disappeared into thin air. Before I could say anything, the air in front of the king distorted, and Avorá appeared from it.

He looked at the seal with concerned eyes and looked at the king, who was looking at her with a small tinge of anger in his eyes.

"I hope you will deal with this," he said.

"Yes, your majesty," Avorá answered. She then turned towards me and I felt something deep within myself to tighten slightly. "Your new mission is to track down Vinicius and either kill him, or capture him and bring him back."

I felt a small pain in my chest about the order, but I knew that Vinicius shouldn't be allowed to be running around with whatever he managed to get out of the vault. I needed to stop him, one way or another.

"I understand," I answered back. As I moved to go to the stairs, Avorá told me to stop.

I turned towards her and saw that she was moving closer to the seal, looking around the ground as if looking for something.

"There is a slight disturbance of space here, from a forceful teleport," she said.

"Can you track it?" The king asked.

"I think so. The teleport wasn't made by conventional means, so I don't know for sure if when I open the portal it will lead to where it should," Avorá said.

"Do it. The portal opening to another kingdom or the entrance of a dungeon would be the lesser of our problems if Vinicius is allowed to keep this part of the seals," the king said.

Avorá then closed her eyes and extended both her hands, moving them until she found a specific spot in the room, and then started to pray for Theo.

Soon, a small disturbance in the air in front of her started to form. It seemed the air was forming a magnifying glass as what was behind it started to appear larger and larger to me until I saw it twisting and a hole appearing in the air, the cliffside of a mountain on the other side of it.

"It's definitely in another kingdom," Avorá said, "but still on this continent."

"That is a relief," the king said. "There isn't anyone on this continent who would oppose us sending one of your summons to search for a lackey of the vampire lord."

"I don't think he is," I said. Both of them turned to me after I said it.

"What?" The king asked.

"I don't think Vinicius is the vampire's lackey," I started. "He is a bully, yes, but I don't think he would submit to the vampire. He might even try to become the vampire's boss or something like that."

The king turned to Avorá. "That would be a bigger problem, you know that."

Avorá's face turned sour. "I know. I brought them here. If one of them became wild like that…"

"You know what must be done," the king said and turned to leave up the stairs.

I looked at him leave until Avorá called me, then I turned towards her.

"This is another order. You must not reveal the true nature of the person you are tracking. If you are to be questioned, you will answer that it is one of the vampire's lackeys you're tracking down."

"I understand," and I did. If I revealed that it was Vinicius, I would cause a lot of trouble for this kingdom. I nodded to her.

"Good," she said. "I know you have a skill for this. Change to your armor and go through the portal. Do not return without Vinicius. Report everything back to me through the various temples of Space."

I nodded and finally used my skill to change from the hospital clothes I was into the armor I was gifted and my sword. I took a look at the landing area just inside the portal and after confirming it was safe I walked through it, the portal closing right behind me.

I was next to the cliffside of a mountain, and behind me was a vast plains with what looked like a city in the distance, and to my horror, I saw smoke coming out of it.