TtOW! - Variant Story: Don't Terminate the Other World! Chapter 1

Author's Note: And since the prologue was technically a Faceless Minion Chapter, here's the first one actually covering Aelea! 

***

Along the road to the Forest of Beasts, two teenagers stood surrounded by bandits.

Taog grimaced as he glanced behind him. It was too late, he and Ateia were completely surrounded by the bandits. He caught sight of one of them taking out a pair of ropes.

He exhaled his breath as he glanced around the ground.

Then he snarled.

“Don’t touch her!”

He leapt towards the biggest bandit…and was promptly backhanded into the dirt. The bandit began to laugh and then started kicking him.

“Taog!”

Ateia moved to help but another bandit caught her from behind. Taog curled up, trying to cover his head as best he could.

When the bandit leader was finally satisfied, two of his subordinates hauled Taog to his feet. He spat blood out of his mouth as they tied his hands behind his back, as they had already done to Ateia. The bandits took their weapons, and then pushed them forward.

“Get moving!”

The bandits dragged the pair to a small camp they had set up, tying them to a pair of posts. Taog’s eyes trembled.

“What are you planning to do with us?”

One of the bandits sneered.

“Why, you two are going to make us a lot of profit. A strong young lad and a pretty young lass like yourselves? You’ll fetch a fine price.”

Ateia glared at him.

“As if! Slavery’s illegal in the Empire, the Legion will execute you all!”

The bandit laughed.

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re bandits! The Legion doesn’t care about nobodies like us, or you! Best get some rest, you two have a long life ahead of you!”

Ateia grit her teeth as the bandit wandered off laughing. She hung her head, staring at the ground as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Taog…I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault we’re in this mess…”

Taog just shook his head.

“I should have caught those bandits’ scent long before they saw us. Just…keep your eyes peeled. We’ll figure a way out of this, ok?”

Ateia furrowed her brow.

“How? How can we possibly get out?”

Taog made a small smirk.

“Leave that to me.”

He wiggled his arms as best he could, shifting something within his sleeves. A few strenuous minutes later, a sharp-looking rock fell from his sleeve into one of his hands. Ateia’s eyes widened while Taog grinned.

After all, it wasn’t the first time Taog had been kicked into the dirt. It had been easy for him to slip the rock into his sleeves while the bandits were beating him.

“Just keep acting scared for now. We’ll need to wait for them to let their guard down.”

Ateia nodded silently and did her best to frown. Meanwhile, Taog started rubbing the rock on the ropes binding him as best he could…

***

Night fell by the time Taog had made any progress. At this point, the rope was hanging on by a thread. Taog felt he could break it at any moment…so he stopped. Cutting his bonds was only the first step, he still needed a way to evade the bandits and escape the camp. And they’d only get one shot at this, he didn’t believe the bandits would be dumb enough to let him escape again. So, he had to pick his moment well. He focused on his senses, trying to keep track of the bandits and their movement, searching for a window large enough for the pair to escape.

And then…he froze. His nose twitched. His eyes widened.

“Ateia!”

He hissed at her in as loud a whisper as he dared. Ateia raised her head.

“We need to go!”

Ateia tilted her head but nodded. Taog went ahead and broke the thread. The ropes holding his hands behind the pole dropped. He winced as he rubbed his hands, then walked over to Ateia, and started working on her ropes as well.

As he did, a chorus of howls filled the night sky. Bandits rose to their feet or stumbled out of tents, glancing around.

A moment later, fur-coated figures rushed into the camp, howling and snarling. They pounced upon the bandits on watch, tearing out their throats in an instant.

“Wulver! Get up you sorry lots, we’re under attack!”

Wulver rushed into the camp, slashing and biting at the startled bandits with fang and claw. The bandits scrambled to grab their weapons and fight back. The air was soon thick with the scent of blood; everywhere men and women were shouting and crying out while Wulver were howling and growling. A bandit mage launched a hastily chanted Fireball that missed, setting one of the tents ablaze.

Taog finally managed to cut through Ateia’s bonds.

“Let’s go!”

Ateia nodded and the two ran off…and head long into a bandit.

“You!”

He reached for a small axe at his side. Taog snarled and leaped at him, clawing at the man’s face. The man grunted and cried out as Taog scratched at him…but the man’s HP barrier held. In a moment, he gathered himself and dealt Taog a quick jab to the stomach. Taog grunted as the wind was knocked out of him and he was sent to the ground.

The bandit snarled and took out his axe. He raised it high…

And then he screamed. Ateia had snuck behind him and stole a knife of his belt, and now drove it into the man’s calf. His HP barrier didn’t hold against repeated strikes by his own weapon, and he fell to one leg as Ateia stabbed the back of his knee. He tried to swing his axe behind him, But Taog leapt at him once more. The three fell to the ground in a pile.

Ateia ended up on top of the man. She grabbed the knife with both her hands and brought it down. And again. And again. Over and over.

Until finally…

You have slain Human (Level 16!)

Gained 20 XP!

Level up! You are now level 8!

Taog exhaled his breath as the Aesdes confirmed their victory…until he noticed Ateia continuing to stab the bandit.

“Ateia. Ateia!”

Taog rushed over and grabbed her arms. She turned to face him. Her eyes were open as wide as they could go and she was trembling.

“Taog…I…”

Her trembling grew and she looked at her blood-soaked hands. Taog grimaced but he held firm.

“Later! Right now, we need to leave!”

“R-Right.”

Taog grabbed Ateia’s hand and then rushed off into the night, pulling her away from the bandit camp.

***

The pair ran until they couldn’t run anymore. Taog sniffed the air and couldn’t smell the Wulver any more. Not that the two had even attempted to cover their tracks, even a Wulver pup could likely track them if they wanted. But such considerations would have to wait, as the pair slumped down against the nearest tree. At this point, they were too tired to move any more.

And then he heard the sobbing.

“Ateia…are you…”

“D-Don’t, please!”

Taog frowned as Ateia tried to shield her face, pushing her other hand towards Taog. Taog winced as he saw the blood still on her hand. He sighed, and tore a bit off his sleeve. He gently took Ateia’s hand and started to wipe the blood off of it.

The girl trembled, and then broke into sobs.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I can’t do this anymore!”

Taog shook his head.

“It’s all right. We’re safe now.”

Ateia started wailing.

“We aren’t safe! We’re never safe! Stupid Lar was beating you every other day! The rest of them were one bad day from kicking you out of the village!”

“That’s…”

Taog winced. He thought he had done a good job hiding that, but it seemed Ateia knew a lot more than he thought.

“I tried and I tried and I tried to keep a smile on my face and get us out of there, but I can’t anymore! Your parents died, my dad disappeared, the Exploratores rejected us, and now we can’t even make it to the forest without being caught by bandits! It’s like the entire world hates us and wants us to suffer! I can’t smile anymore, we can’t get out, and you’re going to keep suffering! And no one is going to help us! No one ever helps us! And now…now…”

She took one look at her hands, her eyes going wide. She began hyperventilating.

Meanwhile, Taog grit his teeth. How could he have been so blind? Of course Ateia knew what he was going through. Wasn’t she the one who got into fights with Lar on his behalf when they were young? So how did he ever believe he could hide things from her? Here he thought he was sparing her from his burdens…but she carried them, anyway. Because of him, she put on a fake smile, suffering in silence this entire time. He clenched his fists until he felt pain in his palms.

He rose to his feet, forcing his trembling legs to move. He knelt down right in front of Ateia, and slowly grabbed both of her hands.

“Hey, Ateia…”

She froze, her breath returning to normal for a second. She looked up at him. Pain stabbed his chest at the sight of her teary face.

“Let’s run away.”

She blinked, huh?”

Taog nodded.

“We’ll grab as much as we can carry from your dad’s stuff and then go.”

“Where?”

Taog shrugged.

“Castra Turannia, then the port, then Utrad maybe? I don’t know, just anywhere but here.”

Ateia frowned.

“B-But, we got rejected from the Exploratores. And we can’t afford it, the money from the Exploratores for my dad isn’t enough, I thought?”

Taog frowned but shook his head.

“It isn’t but…look, we’ll find a way, ok? Your dad has a lot of valuable stuff, weapons, potions, Exploratore gear. We can sell some of it to get some money and then…well, we’ll figure it out. But whatever happens, it can’t be worse than here, right?”

Taog let go of her hands, and then held out his own. Ateia looked up at him for a moment. Then she sniffed, wiped her face, and nodded. She reached out and grabbed his hand.

“Y-Yeah, let’s do it.”

Taog pulled her to her feet…and then wrapped her in a hug. Ateia’s eyes widened.

“I’d do anything for you, you know that, right?”

Ateia stood completely still for a moment before she returned his embrace.

“And you know I’d do anything for you, right? Please…don’t let them hurt you anymore. I can’t sit back and watch any longer.”

Taog frowned but nodded.

The two remained in each other’s arms for a while longer as the rain poured down on the night.

Author’s Note:

See! Everything’s fiiinnnneeee. Ateia and Taog got away from the bandits all on their own! With just a wee bit of extra trauma…but it got them to be honest with their emotions like way ahead of time! So it’s all good, right? We avoided the bad ending, so nothing terrible’s going to happen now, see!

Anyways!

Can Ateia and Taog leave their home and start a new life, away from it all? Will anything else noteworthy occur now that they've escaped the bad end? Tune in next time, to find out!