The World as Myth

Prologue

My name is Duncan Shepard. I was 19 years old. I was tall with pale skin and shoulder length black hair.

My parents died when I was very young, forcing me to take care of my red haired brother Felix. But the orphanage couldn't afford to keep us, we had to leave when I was fifteen. I had been taking care of Felix ever since, but we ended up dropping out of high school and spent most of our time inside, playing video games, watching movies and writing porn, though I did work odd jobs to pay the rent.

We weren't the only ones living there. There was a blonde girl at the orphanage, same age as Felix. She's been living here with us. Her name is Dawn Underwood. Both her and Felix had the same pale complexation as me. Felix and I were quite feminine looking.

One morning, I pushed myself into a sitting position and propped myself up with my hands.

"Who sleeps with their shoes on?" Dawn asked.

I was already dressed, having collapsed on my bed last night without changing my clothes. After coming home from work, I played Final Fantasy XIV with Felix and Dawn. After playing games, I just crashed on the bed, not even taking off my shoes.

In contrast Felix and Dawn were both barefoot. In fact I can't remember the last time either of them wore shoes.

Then again, I seem to be the only one who goes out anymore.

Felix was asleep on the other bed.

"Hey, wake up, Felix," Dawn said, "We still gotta get through that campaign."

"I had this weird dream that I kept falling through stained glass panels with Disney princess' on them and then I had to fight this a giant shadow," Felix said.

"Whatever, I don't have work today, so I can fight along with you," I said, "Hey, Felix, how about we go a quick round on Mario Kart 8?"

"Okay, you're on!" Felix said.

I sat down in front of the TV with Felix. I selected Bowser. Felix went for Link.

3, 2, 1, Go!

We both completed the first lap at the same time.

But in the end, I won.

"Hey, how 'bout..." I said.

"The usual?" Felix finished.

"Let's do it!"

This meant Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I selected the character was Sephiroth.

"I'll go with Cloud Strife. Actually, I choose Sora," Felix said.

And with that, we began our battle. Felix just ran at me. I jumped out the way, causing him to fall into a stage hazard.

I'll skip ahead to the next part of the match I remember. I attacked Felix but he used his shield. Last time, he had his shield up for too long until it burst. I was expecting him to make that mistake again. Instead, he took his shield down and hit me with his key blade, sending me nearly flying off the screen. I landed close to the edge of the platform. I finished Felix off with a Supernova.

Afterwards, the three of us sat together watching No Game No Life: Zero.

"So, suppose you get to another world," Dawn began, "What would you do there?"

What would I do? I hesitated.

"Well, I'm not really sure," I answered, "Probably go on adventures, slay monsters, start a harem. It's just... I've always wondered why we're here in this world. If there any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something greater. So could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

We could have wound up somewhere with adventure and danger around every turn. A world like that would be perfect.

Felix struggled, "I dunno," he said nonchalantly.

He didn't understand me after all these years. I've always wanted something bigger, while Felix has always been fairly content to play video games all day.

"It's the same old stuff," I complained.

"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Dawn said, looking over at me.

After the sun had completely set, I lay on my bed, still fully dressed. I started to slowly rise into a sitting position. I could see lightning flashes illuminating the sky.

"A storm? Oh, no!" I gasped, sitting up in bed quickly.

That's when something dark arose from the ground. It looked something like a black shadow with circular glowing yellow eyes and white fangs. It wasn't alone. More and more of its kind joined it. My heart stopped for just a moment.

They were already pouncing on me, raking their clothes across me. I cried out in pain and quickly shook them off.

These things - these monsters - were real. The pain was enough to tell me that. But why?

Finally breaking away, I realised they had me surrounded. I began to swing my fists frantically from side to side.

I started to run. Maybe I could escape from them. Maybe they wouldn't follow me.

But where could I run to?

Better find Felix first.

I found Felix in his room.

"Felix?"

It was then that a thought occurred to me. Then could be our chance to escape to another world. Maybe if we died here, we'd reincarnate in a better world, just like the plot of an isekai.

"Where's Dawn?!" Felix screamed, interrupting my thoughts.

"Maybe we can finally escaped to another world," I said.

"What are you talking about?" Felix shouted, clenching his hands into fists, "We've gotta find Dawn!"

"Dawn's coming with us!" I shouted back, trembling with excitement.

Felix was taken aback, his eyes widened.

"Once we die, we won't be able to come back," I said, "There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. To be reborn in another world. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of dying!"

"Duncan..." Felix's voice was shaking.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the room.

We found Dawn in her room trying to fend off the shadow creatures.

"Dawn!" Felix said.

"Felix..." she said.

The three of us ran out the house and onto the street. It was a good thing I had slept with my shoes on. Felix and Dawn were both running barefoot.

The shadow creatures kept popping out from the ground, no matter where we went. And we couldn't escape every flashing claw we encountered. It wasn't long before the three of us had scratches all over us.

Felix looked into his right hand. He was holding some kind of massive longsword with a heavy double-edged blade with chainsaw blades moving round it. He looked down at the weapon and examined it.

Just then, the shadow creatures began to appear again. And it seemed like there were more of them.

Both Felix and one of the shadows lunged. He caught the shadow's outstretched fist with his chainsaw sword, slicing its arm. Felix began to swing the chainsaw sword at them, panicked, not knowing what else to do. And, quite to his surprise, the blade was killing them. He struck every shadow creature that came our way, relishing in the fact he could now kill them.

I envied him. I should be the one to wield that weapon. I should be the one protecting him. And Dawn.

Felix's eyes widened in horror. Everything was being destroyed. The surrounding area was falling apart until all that was left was a small island. We were surrounded by water. The land was pulled into the air. I looked to the ground. There was nothing left. No water, no mainland, no rocks, no trees, no anything. This wasn't right. I knew I wanted to escape this world but not see it destroyed. Why couldn't we just be hit by a truck?

A young Demoness with pale skin emerged from the shadows in the ground before us. Her long hair was made up of black tentacles and she had the same yellow eyes as the other shadows.

Felix attacked the demoness. The demoness caught Felix and tossed him aside. The chainsaw sword went flying to me.

This was my chance. I had to act now. I grabbed blade.

"Stand back, Dawn. I'll handle this," I said.

I swung the chainsaw sword, slashing and hacking at the demoness.

It seemed to go down. I ran to Felix. He was already dead. I turned to Dawn, only to see her get blown into the sky.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. The ground succumbed beneath me, sucking me in.