Chapter 1 Saga of terror begins! The Arrival of the Blackgoat Prince!

The chains clinked as they clashed together, clanging every time the wagon shook. The shrill sound made it seem like the metal links were singing. If they were, it was a song of misery; there was no more fitting melody for the dejected bunch who were bound by the chains fastened to the walls of the carriage.

Every prisoner sat on rough wooden benches bolted into the carriage. The old wood dug into the soft flesh of their bottoms with merciless splinters; the cold iron latched on their wrists bit deeply into their skin, granting them just enough circulation to keep their hands from blackening and dying from blood loss.

Each and every one of them was the rough sort. Men and women both, were tattoed and scarred. The dregs of society. The Criminals. Dangerous individuals who had spent their lives in the gutter, biting, scratching, stealing, and killing their way up to carve out their own little slice of the underworld they were forced into one way or another. They were an assortment of the most heinous villains the world of Alothas had managed to capture…

Today at least.

As things tend to go, during their rampages of debauchery, they got sloppy, perhaps just got caught slipping. Or maybe their luck finally ran out. Whatever the case may be, their bad day was soon gonna get a whole lot worse. They were all heading to the worst place Alothas had to offer: the realm of the god [Punishment], Holy City Chastening.

Yet even knowing what fate had in store for them, this gathering of degenerates would usually not expose their weakness upon their faces. No matter how terrible the situation, they masked their fears with bravado. Some of the criminals in this very cabin had spat on the faces of the Holy Wardens who judged them, moments before their sentences were passed.

So what made these coldblooded killers lose their moxy? What caused their tough grisled mugs to contort into pasty skinned, clammy, grimaces of dispair?

In spite of their destination, this terror was out of character for all of them... save for one passenger; the one whose fear seemed natural for the setting, was the only one who looked like they did not belong.

A redheaded girl with a beauty that was so extraordinary, she seemed to shine like a ruby discovered buried in the contents of a midden heap. Even dressed in rags, even though it looked like it had been a week since she had a decent meal, she shone.

Her allure would not look unbefitting upon a throne. Her figure was the type artists would duel each other for the pleasure of immortalizing.

What crime could this human goddess have committed, dooming her with a fate such as the city called Apocolypze on Alothas? Surely a smile from her would absolve any misdeed.

Well…

A smile is what landed her in this hell. A smile… and a loaf of bread.

Akane fidgeted nervously in her seat. Her hands clenched and relaxed to keep up the circulation in her hands like the kind uncle beside her advised.

Ka-chang. Ka-chang.

Akane flinched as the wagon rocked, making the chains bite into her delicate wrists. She was miserable, and her face reflected it. She stared forlornly out the slits in the wagon wall behind her. She couldn’t see much past the plates of armor lining the wagon's side, installed to ensure no villainous cohorts of its inhabitants would attempt a last-ditch effort to rescue their comrades, but what she could see was beautiful.

Long ropey tree roots the color of emeralds, loomed in height like great hills then dove beneath the earth before returning, where oceans of glorious grass the color of the sky back on earth flowed at the direction of the wind. The roots fed into a giant tee trunk that breached so deep in the sky, its branches were hidden away by sapphire-colored clouds.

Akane sighed. This was a beautiful world. This was an awful world. This was a strange world. She chewed on her lip and lifted a brow her expression full of frustration as she stared towards the sounds emanating from the front of the carriage.

When she thought of carriages pictures filled her head of wooden boxed pulled by horses, but instead of the sounds of hooves striking the ground, there was the whir of an engine. This was a world of fantasy, but it was unlike any Akane had ever heard of in books or manga or movies. It was an odd mix of stereotypical sword and sorcery and modern science. Though here in this world the science centered on the progress of magical discoveries.

Akane pondered these things in order to distract herself. With a slight tremble and eyes beginning to overflow with tears, she turned back towards the others locked up together with her.

This pack of villains, though subdued now, had been terrible to her not long ago. The men pawed at her shamelessly every time she strayed too close, promising lewd things they would do once they reached their destination. The women weren’t much better staring at her with scorn filled eyes that swore they will break her as soon as they got the chance.

She was sure they wouldn’t leave her alone. She was sure they wouldn’t stop until they broke her. That is until… until… She turned her head slightly and tried to steal a glance at the final occupant of the carriage.

“Hrrrgh.” as if he could sense her eyes trespassing, a low, throaty growl rumbled from the rear carriage’s lone occupant.

“Eep!” Akane squealed leaping in her seat, spinning away so fast she tweaked her neck. She massaged it as well as he could with the chains, smiling wryly at her own cowardice. Just how, o, how did she get herself into this situation just one week after being brought to this world.

“It’s ok, lass.” the kind uncle sitting next to her said with a smile that didn’t get as fas as his eyes. They looked at her with pity. “He can’t get you. As you can see, the guards were quite thorough in making sure Lord Blasphemy over there can’t do anything to anyone anymore.”

Thorough was an understatement. She turned her head again, forcing herself to stare at the teenage boy bound in the back.

He was peculiar for his skin color alone. Black as the deepest, darkest, cloudy night sky, his skin seemed as though it had been smooth and flawless. If only it hadn’t been covered in long penetrating slashes that crisscrossed his body, biting deep down into muscle.

Obvious evidence he had survived a brutal whipping. Those weren’t the only wounds he suffered; deep punctures and lacerations marked him from head to toe- from sword, arrow, and musket wounds.

Terrible as those injuries were, they weren’t the worst of it. Some of his other wounds made even the middle of his chest which had been peeled away by magic fire, seem tame.

Akane trembled as she looked over his lesions. She wasn’t a doctor so it was beyond her how he was still alive. The guards did not seem to have any intentions of healing him, and it looked as though he could die at any moment.

Akane shivered as she stared at his face. It was hard to look at the great metal Xs that had been bolted over his eyes or the barbed wire sewn through his lips. Her eyes twitched away from his face, which might have been very handsome once, given the sharpness of what remained of his features, but it was in ruins now.

They had even screwed giant bolts into where his ears should be, effectively robbing him of his sight, his speech, and his hearing in the most gruesome way. The only senses left was his sense of feeling which he could surely do without at the moment and his sense of smell which was no doubt dominated by the scent of his own blood.

As if the guards thought he had not suffered enough, the boy wasn’t sitting like the rest of the prisoners. Instead, they took their time screwing great bolts into his hands and feet until he was secured to the wall.

He should be dead and yet…

The other prisoners had laughed at first. They jeered and mocked them and bet their first rations upon arriving at Chastening depending on what hour he would die. They were the ones who created the moniker Lord Blasphemy in order to ridicule him, but it didn't take long for those laughs to turn into ashes in their throats.

It started slow… at first. Those closest to the back of the carriage were the first to lose their smiles and bravado. Then like a plague, shivers and miserable expressions spread to the others and air of dread began to consume them all. The closer they got to their destination the worse it became. Eventually, iron shackles were joined by invisible chains of despair, and wrapped around their collective throats, threatening to strangle them where they sat.

It wasn’t hard to figure out the source of their torment. Each of them could feel the morbid pulse radiating from the rear of the carriage. An all-consuming, all-encompassing hatred that emanated from the boy with such strength, shadows of savage, grinning, fanged skulls took wispy shape to lap at their necks and nibble on their throats with barely restrained hunger.

The only person that seemed to not be affected by that consuming hatred was Akane. She did not even seem to notice it, actually. Perhaps it was because she was ignorant of things like killing intent, and fighting spirit, that the murderous energy spilling out from the boy washed over without her feeling a thing.

“What did he do to… to deserve that?” Akane wondered aloud. She did not know why but not long after he was stuck to that rear wall, the jeering of the others came to an end.

Unaflicted by the dread, she could not help but feel a sense of pity and gratitude for the boy. Somehow he had made the taunts stop.

“...He committed the worst of the Thousand Crimes, lass. The acts that go against the will of the gods.” the old man shook his head staring at the boy with a face twisted in fear. “Look at his collar bone! Its carved there for everyone to see. The sin of Blasphemy. The Chief Sin.”

Akane could make out the letters of the boy’s crime carved into his flesh. It was still oozing blood.

“He raged against the gods and claimed them false. I’m surprised he’s still alive.”

“He was brutalized for criticizing the gods?” What an insane thing to do.

Alothas was not like Earth. There was no doubt about the existence of higher beings here. How could there be? After all, they walked the world side by side with the sentient beings that inhabited this world.

Akane had seen a god once. [Love] was the ruler of the city she came to when she was transported to this world. A woman who literally shone with beauty. The brilliant light she cast was so incredible that even Akane, no even Akane’s friend the goddess that sent her to Alothas, seemed dim in comparison.

“But even so, to go this far…” it was too cruel.

“...” The kind uncle glanced at the boy again before turning to Akane. “Well, this kind of treatment is a bit more… extreme than usual. Even for a Blasphemer.

"Normally it would be normal torture, like whippings and such but... Now this is only a rumor, mind you, but I’ve heard that after the city guard tried to silence him, he went on a rampage in Lord [Justice]’s city. Right when the great god of order was away visiting one of his brethren.

"It is said he slaughtered a hundred of them! Then, when Lord [Justice]’s Holy Knight Troops came to subdue him, he managed to strike a full ten down before he was overwhelmed!

"Ten Holy Knights. Ten!

"They say he must be some powerful sorcerer to do such a thing. But I know better. Sorcerers are like insects to Holy Knights, nothing but things to be trampled. That boy ain’t no sorcerer. Mark my words… if anything he’s a demon!”

Akane shivered and took another look at the boy.

“That’s why they ripped out his tongue and sewed his mouth shut? Is that why they destroyed his hands, eyes, and ears? To seal his magic?”

“Aye…” the old man shook his head and hid his face in his hands. “There are few things more dangerous a human can become than a sorcerer. Evil magic they use powered by the fires of Apocalypze instead of mana. It makes me shiver just thinking on it.”

“Haugh. Haugh.” the boy's breaths came out ragged and wet sounding as he sagged against the bolts buried in his hands. His sightless stare oppressed the cabin of the wagon with his despicable aura. The shadows of the rear cabin clung to his form like a shroud, hiding half of him away in their depth.

For a moment Akane’s eyes were drawn to the shadows. It almost looked… it almost looked like something was lurking there…

“Hiee!!!” Akane screeched causing the old man to look at her in alarm.

“What is it, girl?”

“I thought I saw…” Akane moaned as she fought to catch her fleeing breath. “No nothing. I think I’m just losing it a little.”

The kind uncle smiled sadly in understanding. “I think we all are, my dear.”

Yes. That was it. She was just losing it a little… for there was no way she saw that right? For what would a baby goat with pitch-black fur be doing in the carriage, hiding in that boy's shadow?