The hero awoke. He seemed to be in the same room, but everything was different. He couldn’t see… exactly. Yet he could. He thought he should feel pain. He did, but yet he didn’t. He didn’t feel anything, and yet he ached. He couldn’t feel his hands. His feet. He didn’t even feel any of the wounds he had received, and yet something ached. In this room with him… there was only himself, and a single demon. A demon was still in the ritual room. They could activate whatever vile spell was here. They had to die. He moved to draw his sword, but couldn’t find it. He couldn’t even see it, nor could he see his hand. However, his body moved forward.
He found that he was grabbed by the hand of the demon. That wouldn’t do. He wouldn’t let this happen. So he had no arms… fine. He would kick him. Except, he had no legs. However, he had something. Himself, whatever that was. He threw himself at the demon, wrenching out of his hand. It wasn’t particularly hard. The demon seemed tired, perhaps from attempting to activate his vile magics.
However, the demon’s body was as hard as steel. The hero barely managed to do anything. He himself wasn’t hurt, so he threw himself at the demon again. And again. The demon retreated to the door. However, he was unable to open it. Confusion grew on his face… but the hero didn’t care. He struck again. And again. He wasn’t sure how long the demon remained alive, but it was tenacious. At one point, he thought it was dead… but he wasn’t sure. So he continued. Only when there was barely a trace of its form left did he stop.
Then, he looked around the room. There was nothing. Only himself, and the remains of a demon. No weapons, no armor, no bodies. Not even his own. Thinking about himself, he realized. He wasn’t himself anymore. Inside his head, there were things trying to get him to do something else. He hadn’t really thought about it, and just ignored them. However, his body… wasn’t here. Instead, all he got was the sense of a crystal. A large crystal, the size of a staff.
Well. He didn’t know if he could do anything about that. No, he knew he couldn’t. So, he didn’t worry about it. The voices in his head… wanted to take over his body. However, this was his now. So he didn’t let them. They tried, and he refused them. They scrabbled for control, mentally clawing at him, and he mentally glared back. Eventually, they stopped. He wasn’t sure how long that took. He couldn’t see if the sun had moved or not. He wanted outside. However, the door wouldn’t open. So he hit it.
He hit the door until it opened, but he didn’t break through. Instead, it was opened from outside. He was wary. Was it more demons? No, they seemed like humans. He didn’t recognize any of them. He wasn’t sure if he could recognize them. Heck, he wasn’t sure if he could recognize himself, at this point. What had he looked like again? Umm… That was a problem. Well, not much he could do about it.
Someone grabbed him. He didn’t like that, so he hit them in the face with… himself. They let go. He thought he heard talking. Hmm… something about something. Then, he saw something behind them. A demon! He tried to chase after it, but it slipped around the corner. He wasn’t very fast. It was long gone by the time he got to the corner. Well… that was fine. He was pretty sure he was done here. He was almost certain he had accomplished his goal. As the humans were leaving eventually, he hopped in one of the carts. That would let him go faster. He was pretty sure they were going home. Wherever home was. Well, he should at least get closer.
People kept trying to touch him. He didn’t like that, so he hit them. He couldn’t talk, so that was about the limit of his responses. They kept saying things, but honestly listening was really hard when you were a crystal staff. He moved around to various places. However, since he didn’t know where he was going, it was rather a bother. He decided to follow some wizards. He had always wanted to try to learn magic. Eventually, they put him in a nice case- after he broke out of a big metal box. Well, he supposed that was alright. He was a staff after all. He wasn’t really sure what to do, though, so he just sat around, waiting for something. He heard various people talking. Apparently, he was cursed. Well, that made sense. He was pretty sure he hadn’t been a staff before. Then, after some time had passed, a boy pressed his face up against the glass, and spoke. For some reason, he wanted to listen. So he did.