Magus: The Cost Of Living

Chapter 1̶̨͐́͑̎0̴̗͎͙̓: Threat.

Magus was hiding in alleys, as per usual for him until he heard a sound. Footsteps, coming right towards him. Him being cautious, he decided to hide behind a dumpster until they were gone, but they kept on coming closer and closer. "I know you're here, Magus. Do not be alarmed, I am here to propose to you something I feel you will accept." That caught his attention a little bit, so he went out of hiding and saw the man sitting on top of the dumpster, seemingly teleporting on top of it to be right next to him. "Who are you and what the hell do you want?" Magus said as he quickly drew out his pistol and aimed it at his head. "I simply want to recruit you into something. Something that will help the world." The man grabbed his gun and threw it to the ground. "You are a very skilled man, Magus. You took out a powerful demon, an army of loyal gun crazy cultists, and of course...your best friend." Magus was alarmed, and started to back away from him. "Whatever you want from me, I want to stay FAR away from it, you hear?!" He was genuinely scared as to how this man knew everything, because even if he found the Costco no way in hell would the man know that the ranger was his best friend. "Calm down, alright? I don't want to hurt you to make this reality." The man walked towards Magus, scaring him even more. "Just...just fuck off, okay?!" Magus made a full on sprint the other direction, but the man appeared right in front of him and knocked him out with one clean punch to the hat. "Bad choice, Magus."

As Magus awoke from his slumber, he noticed he was tied to a chair, in what seemed to be a basement...eerily similar to Costco. "Oh, I see what you're doing. You made this place look like Costco to bring back some bad memories of mine, huh?" "You're a smart one, Magus. I like that about you." "You seem just like me at my peak of mental instability. Going to torture me to join that group of yours, huh? I've been tortured enough already, you sack of shit. Nothing you say or do to me is going to even SLIGHTLY convince me to join, you hear?" "Oh, I hear you Magus. You are such a fool, you know that?" The man pulled out a revolver, having tons of ammo on standby. "Every single bullet I have in this place will go directly into your body. I don't care if you die by the end of this, that is my promise to you. Unless...you join me." The man extended out his hand to Magus. "Join me, and help me and my team save the world...together." "I've had another man reach out his hand to me, and I declined. I am not going to break my streak." Magus was cold, refusing to cooperate with this man at all. "Very well then. Let's see how long it takes for you to break."

Days went by, each day the man would come back to dump more and more bullets into Magus. The pain was unbearable for him, but he showed insane resilience. The ropes he had been tied up with were magic proof, meaning that he could not free himself. They were also tied extremely tightly, to cause more pain and prevent himself from trying to rip off the ropes. After a week of this, Magus eventually caved in and reluctantly joined the man's team.

"Glad to have you join my team, Magus." "Are you proud of yourself?" "Why yes, yes I am."

The End...for real this time.