A crinkled up piece of paper unfolded to reveal the words.
Act I
The words faded as they were replaced with a large banner fluttering in the wind, the insignia of a three pronged, spiked pitchfork being weaved onto it.
"At twelve, I swore the oath, leaving home and family"
"At sixteen, I saw my master die."
A figure reminiscent to Slade grieved besides a man in Crusaders gear, several other members of the crusaders order watching on in silence.
"I took up his shield and his name"
Slade reappeared carrying a large tower shield with the insignia of the order while swinging a large chained flail.
"And on that day, I became a Crusader."
The Flail moved to lop off the head of some unknown demon like being.
"Armored by Faith, Driven by Duty, bound to kill the enemies of Zakarum"
Slade reappeared again, holding a sword while bowing to the insignia of Zakarum which appeared in the form of the spiked pitchfork, sunlight streaming down from the skies above.
"Sworn to live as a Crusader, and to die as one."
Slade looked forwards with a new resolve as yellowish eyes glowed from the darkness behind him.
"Now, corruption has returned to the hearts of men"
The yellow eyes belonged to several zombies with rotting flesh and nothing but the skin on their bones left, mad eyes staring at the living with a hunger, a hunger for the flesh.
"I see it in the eyes of the mad, hear it in the howls of mad."
A map of the world unfolded, several locations being drawn onto the piece of paper.
"A falling star in the west leads me to the town of New Tristram."
Slade stood on top of a hill where a winding path led up to the church of New Tristam, watching the star fall from the skies and illuminating the twisting branches of the dark trees.
"The Crusade calls me, and so, I go."
---
"Oh..."
Returning to a body of flesh and blood, Slade stared at his body in slight disbelief.
"What an out of body experience."
It was one thing to experience a cinematic through a screen and another thing to experience them through body and soul, mostly soul.
On that note, he was rather glad that he was now back to the normal body of an adult male, complete with fleshy muscles and a skeletal frame and all seven senses.
(The other two are sense of temperature and Gravity, it's not a widely known fact but they are true)
'I guess I understand what that old crone was talking about now, I swear I'll cherish my life from now on.'
Feeling the dirt underneath his feet and the familiar weight of a body he recalled the past few moments that had just occurred moments ago.
Although he had seen the cinematics that were depicted at the start of the games, the cinematics themselves being years ahead of their time.
It was a new experience to Slade to have experienced the cinematics he viewed as entertainment in person.
"I guess this just grounds the fact that I'm in another world now."
'That and I think I have memories of this place now.'
Clenching and unclenching his fist, Slade stared at his hand before he recalled the memories of his time in the game both in videogame form and apparently in reality form.
"So where am I?"
Taking a look around, Slade took in his surroundings as he was made acutely aware to the weapons lying to the side.
Holding them int the palm of his hand, he felt the distinctive weight of iron in his palm and felt mentally used to them.
Noting that phenomenon he mentally made a checklist of the things he would need to survive in the world.
'Starting equipment check'
A glance to the side revealed a dirt path where a corpse lay strewn to the side.
'Starting path check'
An instinctual wave of the hand which manifested a familiar dark black screen.
'System which'll streamline things check.'
Smiling upon realizing everything was as needed to be, the new Crusader held the weapons in hand and started to move down the dirt path.
Passing through a murder of crows which crowed in surprise, Slade admired his surroundings which were more suited to be found in horror games.
'But I guess this entire world is a horror game for the inhabitants.'
From the dark, gnarled black dried trees which seemed to reach out onto the dirt path as if trying to grasp at the passerbys.
'Which could actually happen.'
To the dark stormy clouds in the air which rumbled within the belly of thunder and crackled around the sky like drums of war.
Having those idle thoughts, soon enough he reached the first enemy in this world.
A zombie.
Covered in red sores and peeled off skin revealing the dying muscles within, the sunken eyes of the zombie rose to meet mine before uttering a guttural growl and lumbering forwards.
Standing above a pair of men who were most likely transporting things in the upturned wheel barrow of theirs as if they were the unfortunate prey of its hunger.
The mad eyes turned to Slade as if promising that he would be next.
Something Slade did not allow in the slightest.
'The Militaries Combatives really does come in handy in times like this.'
Using the special forces martial arts and the inherent familiarity that his body held with the flail, it struck the zombie at the waist down and tore its legs apart.
Dropping the creature to the ground, it reacted slower than expected and tried to crawl at his legs which raised in response.
Stomping onto the zombies arm and breaking it apart with a sickening crunch, Slade bent down and grabbed the zombies jaw with his shield hand and quickly twisted it.
And with a dislocated mouth, Slade repeated his previous actions and crunched the rest of the zombies limbs with the boot of his leg and quickly disabled it.
The only danger it had left was to fall on someone and that someone hits their head on a rock, but even then the danger that was left was basically nil.
Crouching down, Slade eyed the zombie with curiosity.
Now closer and not in dangers way, the zombie flailed its broken limbs around and tried to attack with its broken limbs.
Watching the zombie struggle while missing all of its limbs as if they were nothing, a flash of curiousity and nostalgia flashed through his eyes.
"You know? A crazy woman I know of would've loved dissecting you before testing how well you boil in acid."
Recalling the crazy woman who had little qualms over human life, or at least, human life which had committed death sentences, he hummed to himself.
Stomping onto its head, Slade watched as the creature died and fell limp.
Turning his attention away from his past memories of a few years past.
He continued to walk down what felt like memory lane.
'If I remember correctly, if I use my shield I'll gain wrath...'
Smashing the shield into the skulls of the zombies a little bit farther down the road feasting on a dead body.
'Oh yeah, I also gain Hardened senses.'
Blocking one of the three zombies feasting on yet another body, Slade noted no difference in capabilities and just continued to slaughter them.
'It'll probably come in play later.'
Nevertheless, as Slade traveled down the road, he could note many things in the place that the residents unlovingly call home.
One, it was a chaotic mess of something no matter where one looked, two, the smell of something burning constantly lingered in the air, three... well...
Slade blocked a zombie's flailing arm before breaking its leg.
Monsters were everywhere.
Quite literally, and armed with only a mace, he appeared to be a weak character.
Something the mace would like to say something about.
Walking forwards, he soon met a group of soldiers standing in front of wooden battlements blocking off small groups of zombies which besieged the walls.
+++
The day before yesterday was my birthday :D
Also me no likey the amount of research I had to do for this.
I literally found out there was an extra cutscene for separate characters so I had to go and find that.
Thank God for the internet.