Authors Note: The Grammar in this Chapter Got Fixed I will fix the other chapters later too but I am already dreading Chapter 5 what got into my head for me to make a chapter that long!?
Arthur, a shut-in who had pulled an all-nighter and just finished the first book of LoTM woke up screaming
He was all alone in the house he still lived in with his parents, who were currently working, even though it was a weekend.
He often gets visions about the future when he sleeps sometimes even while awake, but no one believes him. This day he had one as well.
They are usually vague, so much so that he can only understand the meaning after the prophesied event happened today. He saw a vision of himself as a ghost.
But Arthur quickly composed himself. He was still a little panicked, but he knew not all of his visions would come true. If he figures out the events that needed to happen for the vision to take place,
He could even avoid it, although sometimes his trying to avoid the results of his visions only leads him to them. The vision this time seemed distant; he was a ghost after all, so he wasn't in imminent danger at least!
Arthur got up and went to heat up some food. As he did, he thought,
'In that dream, I was barely conscious, surrounded by some thick fog. I was already a ghost, but it still felt like I was dying. How did I end up a ghost? I could feel it; my body was not made out of flesh; it felt like my very soul was being split; it definitely wasn't an ordinary dream...'
But he couldn't finish his thoughts as the moment he turned the stove on, he heard a loud boom! That's all he heard before he saw what remained of his body from a third-person perspective.
Before he could take in the sight, he felt himself being surrounded by thick Grey Fog wrapping tightly around him, as if not intending on ever letting go.
Still rattled by the brief but intense pain he experienced in his dying moments, he barely realized parts of his "body," his new ghostly one,
were flickering between existing and disappearing. He felt a part of his soul being ripped out as he was still looking at the floor when he noticed something:
Although somewhat obscured by the Grey Fog, he saw his ghostly body still had a shadow. He inexplicably felt a wave of relief as the pain started to subside, then he fell unconscious.
He had no dreams, seemingly too tired to try processing any, until with a sudden burst of clarity he saw a vision about a knight confidently leading a group of young warriors. Although he seemed to be just as young as them,
Arthur felt as if he were accompanying them. They were fighting strange, powerful creatures, each more terrifying than the last, in a place that looked like something straight out of a nightmare.
He briefly saw they're searching for seven shards that were keys to open a lock to the Crimson Spire made out of Seven Heads.
Eventually they managed to gather all of them, and when the lock opened, an ancient evil sun shattered, breaking the huge Crimson Spire. It felt as if the sky itself had fallen, plunging the world into eternal darkness.
In that darkness, he felt alone more than ever before, as The Knight had already disappeared alongside those who had followed him, yet he himself remains.
After his vision ended, his burst of clarity did too. When he awoke, it felt like a lot of time had passed. He was exhausted, very sleepy, and hungry too, not to mention thirsty.
He had already forgotten the vision, but he paid no mind to these things. Arthur tried to open his eyes and try to see where he was, only to realize no matter how much he closed and opened them, he couldn't see!
Just as he was thinking he was in some sort of purgatory before he could start panicking, he heard the sound of waves hitting stone. He tried to convince himself he was still alive,
and the reason he saw nothing was because he was looking at the dark sky that was without stars due to light pollution. The coldness, hunger, and thirst he felt seemed to reaffirm his thoughts before he recalled the vision he had; the realization hit him.
This place was probably from the vision he saw, and he knew that the place he saw couldn't possibly be real because he read about it. The forgotten Shore, without having the time to deny the thought and dismiss his vision as a weird dream,
He heard something other than the waves turning his head; he saw undeniable proof he had transmigrated his eyes somewhat used to the lack of light saw the glowing eyes of a nightmare creature battling another one he couldn't see; they seemed to be about 30 meters away from him.
Arthur was relieved he wasn't in some purgatory or hell, but he was still in danger! Afraid they might discover him, he stood still and kept quiet.
It seemed to be the middle of the night, although it was hard to tell in the Forgotten Shores after mere minutes that felt like hours,
possibly due to the two sighs he had held back in that time, still not being found out.
The Nightmare Creature with Glowing Eyes seemed to have just won against the other as his eyes got more used to the light. He saw a still squirming, ugly, tentacle-looking monster in The Bloody Jaws of the Monster with Glowing Eyes.
Perhaps because of how tired, stressed, and hungry he was, he couldn't help but lampoon in his mind, 'With such an ugly face, not even a mother could love you. Got lucky that it at least looks appetizing.'
Despite barely clinging to life, the Tentacle monster, as if sensing that someone was mocking it, looked straight at Arthur and glared
Arthur's body shuddered, but he still dared to think, 'W-what are you looking at, you O-Octopus wannabe?' If you wanna go, I will turn you into takoyaki!' Arthur was bluffing; he didn't even know how to make takoyaki
After some time having calmed down, he thought to himself, 'Cold, naked, alone, hungry, exhausted, and thirsty too, with no explanation to boot—just who brought me here!?' Left with no answer, all he wanted to do was sleep and hope he woke up in his bed.
But he didn't do that because he knew this place was real; he couldn't escape it just by sleeping right now. He was probably relatively safe being in the palm of a statue still above the Dark Sea, so he started pondering how he ended up in this situation.
'I probably died due to a gas leak, since the explosion happened when I turned the stove on.' Sighing again, he continued musing about the cause of his death: "With my mind still focused on the dream I had, I didn't even realize the smell was off TSK! If I didn't have that dream about dying, I wouldn't have died in the first place!'
He sighed, giving up on blaming the Dream; it was useless; he had already died; at least he tried to, but instead of doing that, he started heavily lamenting his undeleted history on his devices, his family—just what would they think of him if they saw it?!
Fem boys, female Godzilla having an affair with Optimus Prime, his own creation Ordinary Rock forcing itself on the Shadow Chair,
along with much more incriminating evidence to display the depth of his degeneracy that seemed endless, enough to make one question how Arthur was not an Unholy Abomination himself.
After resigning himself to his completely deserved fate, he cursed the dream he had once again for not at least having the decency to give him enough time to delete his crimes against morality from the face of the earth,
and after some more time reminiscing about the past, he said in a whisper.
"Recalling my past life, I somehow feel like an old man reminiscing about the old days..." Arthur sighed again, exhausted. "No, surely I'm not. It hasn't even been a day for me; I'm still young!"
Avoiding the topic of the possibility of his past atrocities being brought to light, Arthur thought,
'But... How did I end up here? The Grey Fog? I definitely died, but I'm still alive. There shouldn't be such a thing in Shadow Slave; defying the Law of Death isn't something just any strange fog can do... Unless this is a crossover of sorts, is Celestial Worthy trying to take over my body?!'
Despite not having any understanding of how he transmigrated, he was convinced he had no significant part in it after all; in the World of Shadow Slave he was a dormant beast without even a soul core, and in LoTM he could barely be counted as a half-sequence 9; how could he defy the Law of Death when the Gods couldn't?
Before going to sleep, he decided to pray to The Fool. If Klein, who had become The Lord of Mysteries by the end of the First Book, responded to him,
then he could tell who was behind his transmigration, and he wouldn't have to worry about some Ancient Con Artist taking over his body; he would also know if this is a crossover of sorts.
Arthur put his right hand on the left part of his chest and sincerely started to pray, "The Fool who Does Not Belong to This Era." He abruptly stopped, and his eyes widened because he instantly felt it... This was his true name, an anchor to his existence.