In the beginning the king did not believe me, not even bothering to allow me an audience to explain myself. Even though a few priests vouched for me, no one took me seriously. But I am not the type to wait and do nothing. So, just like in my previous world, I created the Otherworlders Guild and started working together with fellow otherworlders. They were also skeptical at first, but after some convincing they got on board.

  Then more otherworlders appeared vividly remembering their home planet dying before they got summoned. The pesky royals did grow restless, but understood it as yet another byproduct of being summoned. However, after the priests were not able to summon any new otherworlders at all, then the king finally got serious.

  I looked up at the king of the mightiest human kingdom on this planet: Bartolomeu Boreas. Beside him stood the swordsaint Lyra Songbird, one of the four saints blessed by an archangel, scion of the kingdom of Boreas.

  "Took you long enough, you piece of shit."

  - Rachel, the twice summoned

  Sierra calmly walked past the guards. She remembered how nervous she had been in the beginning, constantly scared of being caught. Eventually her worries disappeared. There was just something awfully comfortable about living in the background, being ignored by others.

  The hallways of the nobles barracks was beautifully decorated. Relics left behind by otherworlders, paintings of nobles, and exquisite pieces of abstract art. She would grimace at the occasional sight of demons horns hanged up as trophies. None of the horns looked familiar to her, and that made her feel sick.

  Walking past another guard, she slowly opened the door decorated with mirror shard and slipped in. Looking around the dimly lit room she founds tables carefully lined with items. She was lucky the nobles didn't bother setting up extra security. As much as she wanted to blame it on their arrogance, she understood their reasoning. The first time she entered the human kingdom she had directly headed to their capital. Being away from that environment probably felt like a blessing in disguise for them. Embracing the comforting feeling of security was exactly what she wanted her own people to feel; it felt wrong to judge them too harshly.

  Moving past the rows of expensive items, her eyes landed on her target. "Found it."

  After she had taken the item, she noticed something flashing. In the corner she saw a crystal ball hanging on the wall. It was blinking with that familiar black color she despised so much. Outside she heard guards talking loudly to one another. "Time to leave."

  ***

  What the space, was Sierra seriously killing him off? After everything he had done to help her?

  Tom noticed Sierra hurrying down the stairs, again acting like nobody could notice her. But unfortunately for her, he could. He walked up to her. "What the space Sierra, why are you trying to kill me?"

  She looked confused. "What do you mean? I have been busy completing my mission. About that, we have to hurry—. Wait …"

  Tom rolled his eyes. Before he could interrogate her further the doors to the ballroom flung open. "There’s a demon!" A man shouted.

  "We know you simpleton," a random nobleman spoke. "The Commander left to intercept them. Demons faint at the sight of her, we are in good hands."

  "No, not them. The new security orb we bought from the Inventor revealed the presence of a demon."

  That was it for her. Tom walked to the center of the ballroom, staring at Sierra. "I already know who this demon is. It is—."

  A chuckle filled the room.

  "I knew underestimating the infamous Tomassio Rossi would do me no good."

  Tom looked at the man who spoke. It was the instructor Constantine. He leaped into the air to assume his true form. "I AM..."

  Dramatically pushing his chest forward, two wings sprouted from his back consisting of feathers like that of a dove. His aura assumed a more gentle white color. Moving both his hands to his temple a halo appeared floating on top of his head, burning with an intense green fire. Pushing both hands to the side, t-posing and spreading his wings, a radiant light lit up the entire ballroom. "GLORIOUS!"

  Since when did demons have transformation sequences? And Tom could swear he could hear some background music amidst it all. He wanted in.

  "Kya, it’s a vile demon. It looks so … surprisingly aesthetic?" A noblewoman said.

  Another nobleman scratched his head. "I don’t know how to feel about this."

  "Someone kill it already," Leonard shouted. "Guards! Guards!"

  Tom looked over at the guards, and they were lying on the floor unconscious, along with several other nobles.

  "How dare you deceive us, vile demon!" Leonard said. "I thought, I thought you were one of us."

  The demon cooked his head. "I wanted to. That’s all." Raising his hands, columns of fire appeared blocking off every possible exit. Gracefully flapping his wings, he turned and flew closer to Tom. "You knew from the moment you first met me, didn’t you?" The demon smirked, revealing his perfect white teeth. "The ability of an observer truly is astounding."

  What was astounding for Tom was how this demon was stupid enough to reveal his identity. He looked over at Sierra, but she was as confused as the rest. "Yeah. I knew from the start. I’m cool like that." Tom straightened his back and pointed Trash towards the demon. "Vile demon, what is your intention here?"

  "My name is Constantine. And the answer to your question should be obvious: keep the human army weak and stupid. Unfortunately, they have been much more stupid then I had anticipated." He gestured towards Leonard. "Weak egos are easy to controll."

  Leonard's eyes bulged. "How dare you!" He was about to charge at the demon, but Tom motioned for him to stay back.

  "There is no reason to extend this … situation. You demons already killed several of us in the previous expedition."

  The demon nodded. "Several of your kind did indeed perish. However, the king did not care as much as we expected. I presume the death of lower ranking nobles are not of his concern." His gaze fixated on Tom. "The son of a Duke however, that would do something."

  Tom folded his arms. "Don't even think about it. Against me, you’re nothing." Acting though would probably scare him off, right?

  The instructor clicked his tongue. Holding out his arm, a sword made of green fire appeared out of nowhere. "Your arrogance ends here." Pointing the fire lance to the sky, a massive beam of green fire blew a hole through the roof. "May the evil perish under my glorious fire!"

  Small patches of green flames started slowly spreading across the room. The fire gave off a lukewarm heat, yet the fact that the remaining parts of the roof that made contact with it collapsed to the ground — creating a small crater — made him guess that he would more quickly die from being squashed than the heat.

  Great. A boss fight, and he had no spirit stones with him. Judging from the drunken state of all the attendees, and the blocked exits, he had no option but to fight. Tom tried searching the room for the nearest spirit.

  He focused on the fiery green aura emanating from the demon's sword and halo. Comparing to the demons aura he saw no difference.

  Something he had noticed out of curiosity was that Trash had an aura similar to his own. Zev had told him aura sword were designed to be extension of elves auras, but it also looked like it mirrored the auras of its bearer. That sword had to be an aura sword, or at least something similar. If so, he had little to go on.

  Sensing different auras he had understood it as color representing different elements or aspect of reality, but the color green would normally represent nature; what did it have to do with fire and gravity? Also, why did he feel a strange sense of heaviness from the aura?

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Tom pushed away those questions. It was time to focus. Perhaps if he used stabilize to weaken his connection to the sword? He focused on the separate auras of the demon and the sword. Even though they looked identical, there had to be something to even out.

  "[stabilize]."

  For seconds he felt absolutely nothing, then he collapsed to the ground clutching his head. It was as if he was hit with a thousand thoughts at once, all seeping into his mind as sharp blades — cutting deep wounds into his sanity.

  Trash frantically hummed.

  "That was just adorable." The demon Constantine laughed. "Don’t overestimate yourself. The powers of an observer are useless against a sonata."

  Sierra gasped. "A high-grade spirit. But that—how?"

  A noble lady walked forth. "I don’t know what you vile demons are playing at, but are you going to pay for the damages?"

  "Yeah. I want refunds. I will take you to court for this!"

  The demon sighed, covering his face. "Glorious Singers, they are dumb."

  Averting his gaze, Tom carefully took a step back and looked over at Sierra, still clutching his head. "So. You know this guy?"

  "No," she whispered. "But he must be from one of the factions pushing for the war. He is a type of demon called an angel."

  "An angel? How is that a type of demon? I thought the human kingdom were the ones that worshiped the archangels and such."

  She shook her head. "I didn’t say angel. I said: angel."

  "…I am confused."

  Trash hummed. "It’s the stupid translation skill made by the Mirror Maiden. You must be hearing the same word used for different concepts."

  "Well, that is dumb." So this was another type of demon? They had to defeat it somehow. This was probably his time to prove himself.

  "Sierra, what do we do?"

  Trash hummed. "I want to see you transform too. It’s so intriguing."

  "This is not the time for that." She picked something from her bag and laid it in his hand. It was a translucent gem, filled with many different colors. "This is what I came here for. A soul gem. It is a gem that continuously embodies everything unto itself. Spirits, and even souls."

  "Everything? That sounds a bit dangerous."

  "If you look at the colors there are around 10 spirits. Children in the demon lands use soul gems to practice embodiment. Of course, after a spirit has been ambiently embodied over the decades. If the gem is empty, it will latch onto the nearest soul, since the soul's aura is the closest thing to a spirit. Use it to embody Trash. I will throw mid-grade infused attacks that you can use."

  Tom could still feel the horrible sensation in his mind from trying to use [stabilize] on a high-grade spirit. "I don’t think that will be enough. I can’t fight. I can’t—."

  She shook her head. "Don’t worry. Just follow my lead. I got a plan."

  While the nobles were threatening to sue the demon, Sierra threw a dagger at its feet. Immediately at contact the dagger glowed with a dark hue making all nearby shadows contract towards it.

  Tom put the soul gem on Trash and the sword changed into a blue color. Focusing on the auras of Trash and the shadow spirit, he thrusted the blade towards the demon.

  "[stabilize]!" Tom could feel the skill activating, and the shadow spread across the room — losing to the light, with a wave of water. However, instead of shooting a strait line, water came out of his sword soaking the entire room.

  "Kyaa, my clothes are wet."

  "This demon is truly vile."

  Oops. Tom swung his sword at the demon, but he simply dodged it by flying higher.

  "Such poor swordsmanship," the demon chuckled, but he barely managed to avoid another dagger flying through the air. "That fighting style looks familiar... A follower of that naive demon king of ours, perhaps? Not that it matters." The demon raised his sword.

  "Smoke spirit!" Sierra shouted, throwing a ball at the demon's feet which exploded into a big mist.

  Tom laid the soul gem against Trash and tried focusing on a spirit. A color disappeared from the gem, and Trash transformed into a turquoise sword. Tom focused on the smokescreen and slashed his sword in the air. "[stabilize]."

  The smokescreen contracted, and a massive blade of wind surged forth from his blade and toward the demon.

  Thrusting his blade, the demon made it collide with the wind. Then, as if time stood still, the blade of wind stopped mid-air. It glowed with a weak green hue, before smashing into the floor creating a crater. The silhouette of the wind blade was still visible in the center of the crater as if it was unable to dissipate from a weight.

  What was he supposed to do now? Tom took a step back and noticed something.

  The demon laughed. "Is that all?"

  "No," Sierra answered.

  Behind the demon, darkness was forming along the wall. An excruciating dark shadow — no, Tom wasn't sure what it was but it was too dark of a color to be a shadow. It had not a single hint of light besides a ring of light circulated the edges. Small parts of the demon's green fire began flying toward the center of the dark ring. The demon turned. "That … Why is the bearer of a sonata here? And how do you have a sonata that even I do not know of? You’re not even of high birth!"

  Sierra did not say anything as the ring of light around the black disk spun at an increasing rate. The demon tried flying away to no avail. "Don't think you have the upper hand. The moment you lose control, it is over. And that sonata will be mine." The demons eyes bulged, his gaze fixed on Sierra. After a brief moment his expression changed to one of confusion. "Why hasn't your sonata manifested? Did you—?"

  Ignoring the demon she looked over at Tom. "This might hurt, but I need you to use stabilize on the black hole and his sword."

  "But—."

  "Just trust me."

  Taking a deep breath. He did as she said. Taking a firmer grip on Trash, he focused on the black hole's aura. It felt familiar to the darkness — yet more resolute? Again he focused on the heavy feeling aura of the green sword. "[stabilize]".

  Tom was expecting to feel the horrendous cuts of reality rejecting his will, yet to his shock, his mind was filled with blankness, confusion.

  The black hole and the sword made a loud bang sound, as they rejected each other. The black hole broke through parts of the wall, becoming smaller due to the wall reducing in size. The sword flew from the demon's grip away from the black hole, before reentering the gravitational pull. The blade turned and headed directly towards the demon.

  "Wait, we could—." Tom couldn't quite hear what the demon was saying, since after the black hole rotation quickened, and he was too focused on holding onto the closest object, the room became eerily quiet.

  The blade stabbed the demon in the chest. Not a single one of his screams reached Tom. But that wasn’t the end. The sword vibrated. The demon stopped in the middle of the air, glowing with a green light.

  If he had heard what came next then it would have been the sound of bones crushing. The demon fell towards the center of the black hole, being kept there by the pull as the green sword crushed his entire body. Helpless, the demon jerked around as his entire body was mushed together. Blood flew out of his body, painting what ended up being a flat disk of the demon's remains along the wall.

  Sierra fell to the ground gasping, causing the entire black hole to shrink toward the center and disappear. Then everything went back to normal, except for the sword still stuck on the wall along with the demon's remains.

  Several nobles started puking at the disgusting sight.

  Tom also felt like throwing up, but he tried to hold himself together. "That was a brutal way to die."

  "I have to agree," Trash hummed.

  The bystanders slowly got back on their feet, speechless by what had just happened.

  He nonchalantly waved his hand around. "A secret Duke’s family skill, people. Don’t worry about it." They looked at each other and shrugged. The people of this world were way too easy to fool for their own good.

  Tom took a step closer to the sword stuck on the wall.

  "Did you learn nothing from your day with that elf Zev?"

  "Okay. I get it. Don't touch the cool sword." He turned around and helped Sierra back on her feet. "Are you fine? That … It must take a lot out of you."

  She pulled back her wet hair from blocking her eyes. "I should be fine after some rest."

  "What are you going to do about the sword?"

  Sierra shrugged. "Would be suspicious if I took it. And I doubt any human would be able to learn to use it. Having it sealed in a vault is for the best." She stared at it. "I don’t think I can use it anyway. It doesn’t fit my musical style."

  The demons were much more interesting than Tom first thought. He definitely had to include Sierra in his future OP party. "Let's leave then."

  "Wait," Leonard interjected. "Where are you going? Aren’t you going to help us get revenge against the filthy demons for attacking us? What about leaving the commoners?"

  Tom thought about Mark, who was a much better minion than Leonard ever could be. How he missed the boring commoner's barracks. At least nobody tried to murder him there. Also, Tom thought about the pain going on a getting-revenge-against-the-demons plot line would be to pursue. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I am way too lazy for revenge. This also seems to be an obvious choice for the wise main character to make."

  "Lazy? Main character?" Leonard repeated, confused.

  They just left him at the entrance of the barracks and started walking back towards the bonfire.

  Trash hummed. "That ended up being much more entertaining than I thought."

  "You know," Sierra began. "I can just go in and steal some of their books if you want to?"

  Tom shook his head. "They already noticed you with a new invention, so you should probably stay low for now. I guess I will just find some way to leave this camp instead."

  "That works too." She hesitated. "Thanks for the help."

  "Help? I barely did anything. You were the one with the cool black hole — or sonata I think it was called."

  "My sonata would have done nothing unless you hadn't made the sword slipp from his grip. You just defeated an observer as a demon, that is a big deal. Don't be too though on yourself."

  He scratched his head. "Alright. But I still think I could have done more. I promise, in our next battle, I will do better."

  Sierra nodded. "I know you will."

  For a side-character she was kinda cool. "Are we friends now?"

  She laughed. "You really are something. Yes. We are friends."

  When they finally got to the bonfire Tom saw that they were all eating, and singing. Mark looked delighted to see them there and ushered them to a place to sit closer to the fire. Ilona was also happy, but he could notice her grimace at Sierra's attendance. Letis and the other girls however, to his surprise, smiled and welcomed her with open arms.

  "How was the Midsummer Ball?" Ilona asked. "And why are both of you wet?"

  "Too complicated. Let’s just eat, I am famished." He gulped and looked at Hiro. "Hey Hiro, you won’t mind teaching me some more swordsmanship?"

  Hiro almost dropped his plate. "Don't worry. I would love to."

  Zev laughed. "Oh. How it is to be young. This is the perfect time for my secret party trick." He took off his boots and two snakes slid out.

  "Kyaaa! Snakes."

  People started frantically running as the snakes slid across the ground.

  "Don't be scared," Zev said. "Fried snakes are an elven speciality."

  Looking at the chaos, Tom smiled.

  Then he remembered how the remains of the demon looked like and puked on the spot.

  ***

  The otherworlder ignored the fog and continued climbing. There were far too few rocks to get his footing on, but creating wind runes to stand on he continued climbing and climbing.

  He climbed until he could finally see the sky again. At the ledge he was met with the sight of a young girl.

  "It is rare that someone manages to climb out of the Void." She stretched out her hand towards him. "Welcome to this world, otherworlder. Ready to destroy it?"