4. New World

Two guards and a priest walked down the long corridor. Inmates of different sizes banged on their cell doors, calling the men various less-than-respectful names. They tried everything to break out, some of them using magic to burst open the door, but all to no avail. The building was designed to keep the most physically and mentally adept monsters at bay.

"Did you get the info, Father Adams?" One of the guards asked the priest.

"Yes. I prepared a special prayer that shouldn't harm him."

These two might've been men, but the second guard wasn't. He was a large, pig-like humanoid who looked to enjoy his job more than comfortable.

"Don't worry, Father Adams!" The pigman stretched his limbs. "This is one special piece-of-trash if you've ever seen one! He was Lazar's favorite little slave for being the most powerful out of the bunch."

The priest gulped loudly in fear.

"And… Are you sure the two of you will be enough?"

"What do you mean?"

"If he's so strong, can't he kill us?"

The pigman laughed so loudly that it turned into screaming. The two humans had to cover their ears to not be deafened.

"What do you mean? Hah! That bastard lost his will to live when he saw Lazar get killed!"

"He saw Kazuma slay the vampire lord?!"

The number one hero of Oraclon was a boy named Kazuma. He was summoned into this world one year prior with the task to slay Lord Lazar, the one threatening all of Oraclon. Kazuma was nothing more than an ordinary high school student before being summoned, but thanks to a special system he earnt from the Empire's king, he's been able to become the Number One of this world.

"Here we are." The guards stopped before an iron door.

The pigman stepped close and banged his fist on the cell door.

"Hey, wake up! It's time for your execution!"

The blue moonlight lit up the cell's interiors. Inside was a man, laying naked on a small stack of hay.

When he turned around, his dead eyes showed in all their beauty. His face was expressionless beside the black, tired circles around his eyes.

He has been rotting in this cell for almost two weeks.

"Can't you just kill me tomorrow?" Gabriel yawned. "I want to sleep."

"You got no saying in this, devil!"

"But I'm tired…"

"No one cares about the feelings of trash!" The pigman burst open the door. "Wake up now or I will beat you up like last time!"

The priest recoiled upon hearing that, but the human guard was quick to reassure him.

"He can't actually hurt him thanks to his incredible regeneration."

"Oh…" Father Adams watched as the guard tied Gabriel's hands together. "Excuse me for being so skeptical, but do you really believe the electric chair will be enough to kill him?"

"It wouldn't be, but this inmate is different. He wants to die."

The four men walked into a secluded room. It bore only an iron chair and a dictaphone next to it. The way the two worked is that the prison commissioned mages to write them high-power electric scrolls that when being read up into the dictaphone sent the spell right through the iron chair.

"You're one lucky trash to get such an expensive goodbye!" The pigman said while strapping Gabriel into the chair.

Gabriel's dead eyes glanced over to the other guard.

"Excuse me, but… If I remember correctly, I got a life sentence."

"Well, since the vampire lord's defeat, we've been getting more and more prisoners from the state. Due to our lack of resources and cells, the guys above said we have to cull out the inmates with the worst crimes."

"And rightfully so!" The pigman added. "Trash like you belongs in hell!"

Gabriel knew by the look of the guard that he wasn't telling the complete truth. Still, he wasn't bothered by it. After all, dying seemed like the easy way out of this worthless existence.

Father Adams crouched down to grab the demon's hands.

"What are you doing?" Gabriel asked.

"Praying for you to have a peaceful afterlife."

"I'm a guardian demon. If you were to pray while holding my hands, I'd burn before those two could do anything."

"I went out of my way and found a hymn that should leave you with no more than a tickling sensation." Father Adams winked. "Do you like red wine?"

"Only if it's dry."

"Then you'll love this prayer! Repeat after me…"

The two guards waited for them to finish. When the final "Amen" was said, the pigman wasted no time and pushed the priest aside.

"Alright, that was enough foreplay to butter him up!" He took the lightning scroll and approached the dictaphone. "Let's see, what do we have here…"

As the guard stuttered the spell into the dictaphone, Gabriel could feel the iron chair heat up. A burning sensation grew in his brain that quickly became a stinging pain.

While trying to resist the pain, his eyes darted over to the entrance of the room. To his surprise, there was a fourth figure standing there.

"Huh?"

It was Kazuma. The number one hero of Oraclon and the man who killed his master.

"What is he doing here? It's the middle of the night!"

Gabriel tried to raise his arm, but it was tightly strapped to the iron chair. The same was the case with his legs and torso.

"Damnit!" He fought to escape his binds. "Why is he here? That… sadist! Did he come to witness my death?"

Father Adams turned around and approached Kazuma. He took his hands and began reciting the same prayer as he did with Gabriel.

"Why are they praying? What is happening?!"

His head was too clouded with pain to form coherent thoughts. All he could do was grunt and growl as his torture grew even more intense.

"Give it to me!" The human guard took the scroll. "If you're so slow, we won't be on time!"

He read faster than the pigman, which only meant an even greater pain for Gabriel. His skin began to steam as his blood started to boil. An ordinary human would've been dead already, but thanks to his incredible durability, his torture needed to be longer.

High voltage sparked around the man. His screams were almost muffled by the whips and crackles of electricity.

As the final lines of the scroll were read out loud, a nearby clock struck midnight and a bright explosion blinded the room. The guards jumped to the ground and the priest covered behind the wall. Only Kazuma stayed the same, his determined eyes gazing at the bright explosion.

When it was over, a thick mixture of steam and smoke clouded the room. The iron chair was empty besides a small pile of ash, glowing with a purple light.

"Is it over?" The pigman cautiously looked around.

"I guess so… The demon is dead."

Kazuma walked into the room to observe the ash. The purple light around it was a sign of the dark arts. It was only natural for a demon to leave behind something like that.

"Hmph." He smiled before kicking over the iron chair. "I guess we're done here."

The guards looked at him with a hint of fear before quickly exiting the room.

– – –

As the light engulfed Gabriel, his body turned numb. For a moment, he was one with nothingness, his being no more than a thought.

Suddenly this light began to fade and as he finally regained his senses, the world around him changed. He found himself not in the dark corner of a prison, but amidst a large throne room. He had his butler clothes back and his wounds disappeared. There were also four other figures standing next to him in line, bearing the same confused expression.

"What happened?" He thought to himself, only to get deafened by a ceremonious fanfare.

There were people around him, hundreds if not thousands in the room. Some were atop the balconies, raining down colorful confetti of flowers upon him and the figures next to him.

At the end of the room was a long set of stairs that lead up to three different thrones. In the largest sat an old man with a long white beard, in the second a woman with red curly hair and in the third a brown-haired boy.

The old man stood up from his throne and raised his hands into the air.

"Heroes from a different world! Welcome to the land of Astria!"