Chapter Text
This is the story of two worlds. A story that involves a man accidentally traveling from one world to another, with it ending up being the best thing that happened to him. But first, we must know about this world and the man traveling to it. We must know what it was like before the man’s life and the world he ended up in both changed.
In one world there was a set of islands populated by two kinds of creatures. Pals, a widely varied group of different creatures all capable of extraordinary things, and humans. While pals acted similarly to animals and thus had a simple hierarchy, the humans of the islands were broken into factions and have been for quite some time. Then about a year ago an outlier group also appeared that caused all the factions to agree they were anything but normal. The castaways are what the factions call these outliers and they themselves have also broken up into groups, just rather small ones due to them being few in number. Castaways had three ways to quickly identify them that were also unique to them. An ancient tablet that records information for them, a complete immunity to pal spheres, and a quickly formed bond to a powerful pal.
The leaders of the various factions used to fit this description. Their connection to the tower they control provides them pal sphere immunity and the powerful pal they bonded with making sure no one could take that control from them. It is because of this that when they began to form factions they managed to quickly reach a large scale and maintain the size that they are now. But as time went on they integrated with the islands and slowly but surely stopped being considered outsiders eventually losing the status of castaway.
But the ancient tablet ironically only the modern castaways carried was actually a sign of another thing. Each one of them wasn’t from this world to begin with. They all through one method or another traveled from their world to this one, some by accident and others on purpose. However they all arrived the same way. They were dropped into the ocean and passed out upon reaching shore and when they awoke there was a strange tablet in front of them saying “the towers are the key”. This experience was shared by all of them no matter where they washed up.
Now there were nine castaways that fit the current definition that were split into four groups based on the worlds they came from. A trio calling themselves The Forest Queens who were proving to be a major issue now that they have begun making makeshift guns and managed to befriend the King of the Forest. Another trio who referred to themselves as The Frost Moons that only settled down somewhat recently but managed to befriend a rampaging Kitsun. A duo named The Storm Riders by the people of the islands who recently started refining metal and was the first to befriend a powerful pal being the Unstoppable Stinger. Then lastly one who worked alone that called themselves The Firecaller and was somewhat inefficient but had strong pals not to mention a rampaging Jormuntide Ignis.
These castaway groups changed how the islands worked entirely through sheer power alone. One castaway could do what would take ten to twelve people for any other faction. Some leaders were even considering putting grudges aside and allying to take the castaways down or becoming allies with the castaways. However, even the castaways themselves had their own thoughts on each other with The Frost Moons and The Firecaller being mortal enemies and The Forest Queens holding a grudge against The Storm Riders ever since the riders successfully raided the queens. But despite all the tension everything was at a standstill. The brink of war is very different from war itself, and all it would take is one unforeseen event for everything to tip over.
Meanwhile in the other world there was a man named Revilot. Revilot was a fairly lean somewhat pale man with jet black hair that reached his neck and a clean shaven face due to the inability to grow facial hair. He had lived a fairly normal life as far as anyone living in 2263 was concerned until age 10. That’s when he was diagnosed with hollowblood, a rare illness that ate cells from the inside out causing the body to decay at an greatly accelerated rate. Now Revilot had three options, expensive daily cell injections to offset the ones he was losing, the 100 times more expensive anti-blight serum, which could cure just about any disease hollowblood included, or if he couldn’t afford either he could always just accept his fate and slowly but painfully decay into nothing.
Naturally option three didn’t really appeal to Revilot. However his family disowned not even two weeks after his diagnosis and the “support” system currently in place by the government would more than likely just claim that he “couldn’t be saved and needed to be put him out of his misery”. So Revilot was forced to turn to crime. He proved to be rather good for a ten year old and even better when he decided to use his age to his advantage. He stole and killed for whoever was willing to take the chance on him and once he built a reputation whoever the highest bidder was. Revilot kept at it for twelve years trying to save enough money for a permanent cure and prolonging his life with illegal but effective drugs making quite the name for himself along the way as well as some powerful connections. Eventually he needed only one more job and he would finally be rid of his curse and could live a relatively luxurious life afterwards. Of course that’s where things go wrong.
…
This was supposed to be an easy job. Get in, get the guy, get the information, get out, quick and quiet. But of course the man he was after was at some kind of experimental government lab, working on portals or something. It didn’t really matter to Revilot. Even if they even managed to finally crack the code on teleportation it would likely be crazy expensive and remain that way for hundreds of years. What did matter is this guy had information that other people were willing to pay for. So Revilot simply sighed and began scoping the place out.
It was remarkably easy to access for a government facility. Aside from a few guards around each conventional entrance and the rare patrol, this place didn’t have any security at all. Any security that mattered to Revilot anyway. Cameras were easy to avoid and he expertly evaded the near pointless sensors at each checkpoint considering none of them were guarded. He cornered his target in some kind of office and the man broke immediately. As Revilot watched the data transfer he felt a rumbling from below. That was the only warning he got.
The ground opened up below him as it was sucked into what could only be a rapidly destabilizing portal. Revilot clung to whatever he could in a desperate attempt to stay put as the man he was once after was sucked in. It proved to be futile however as his grip slipped and he was pulled towards the portal. In a last ditch effort he grabbed his gun, a custom revolver that fired high caliber bullets via a railgun-like system and had golden snake engravings in the cylinder where each bullet was loaded, and shot at what he thought was the portal’s frame hoping it would cause it to fail. In a way he succeeded as the portal grew even more unstable. The next thing Revilot saw was blue, then a different shade of blue that seemed to be getting closer. He landed with a large splash and was glad he had the foresight to put his revolver away when he saw the first shade of blue. He broke the surface of the water and spotted land not too far away and swam like his life depended on it because it did, and as soon as he got on the beach he collapsed promptly passing out.