The silence was jarring. Samira looked up from her plate to examine her surroundings as she continued the movement of moving another piece of steak into her mouth. At first, the other customers hadn’t noticed anything strange. However, as they caught on to the strange atmosphere, they began to look around. Confusion thickened in the air as more and more people noticed the situation.
The sudden tremors that violently shook the building sent the fork in Samira’s mouth to stab into her tongue. The flash of pain temporarily distracted her from the pandemonium, but when she caught sight of the intruder that made its way into the steakhouse through the ceiling, her tongue went numb. Bewilderment painted itself on Samira’s expression as she stared at the thing that stood on top of the bar.
The monster had scales that covered its gnarly torso and elongated limbs. Black fluid oozed out from its orifices, and a cracking sound could be heard every time it took a breath. Samira’s muscles tensed up as the monster veered its gaze towards her direction; her eyes focused on how the monster clenched and unclenched its fists, as if it was contemplating something. Oh, how Samira despised that it seemed to be thinking.
All the built-up tension erupted at the sound of a bell chime—and the monster releases an enraged war cry. Its limbs crash into whatever was in the vicinity, shattering liquor bottles and wood furniture and humans alike. Chaos and destruction would be an understatement as it used human remains to bloom red flowers on the walls and pulverizing whatever was in between it and Samira.
“Samira!” She could hear her parents shout for her, yet Samira was rooted to her seat, unable to lift a single muscle.
『I’m going to die.』 She was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it. Not her frantic heartbeat, not her flight-or-fight response, not the people around her could do something about it. Anxiety ripped through her stomach as her brain went on overdrive.
“Stuck in a daydream?”
#
A flash of white flew past Samira and landed on top of the monster’s shoulders. A woman donned in white clothing was seated on top of the rampaging monster. Her sliver locks, which was tied up in a ponytail, swung around in the air as the monster thrashed around to get her off. It was a futile effort— the woman secured herself by digging her stilettos into the monster’s chest and clamping her hands around its head. The monster released another blood curdling screech.
“There’s no need to get so excited!” The woman laughed in a manner that matched her devilish smile and the vicious glint in her lavender eyes. “I’ll squeeze your fucking eyeballs out soon enough!”
The monster struggle became frantic as the woman exerted all of her strength into her arms— compressing the monster’s cranium until a grotesque crunch resonated through the dining hall. The woman jumped off the monster with practiced ease, landing a few feet in front of Samira. The corpse landed beside her, more vicious fluid gushing out of its deformed skull.
With the snap of her fingers, the bodily fluid that stained the woman’s clothing and skin was devoured by a kaleidoscope of golden butterflies, returning everything into a pure and pristine state. The woman’s smile softened into something friendlier, as she fixed her hair, pulling it away from the sides of her neck. As she did that, the tattoo on the left side of her was exposed for Samira to see— the tattoo of a golden butterfly.
There was only one family that Samira knew that was represented by the golden butterflies, and within that family, there was only one person with a golden butterfly tattooed to the left side of their neck. There was only one answer in her mind, but she refused to believe it. How could she? After all, Adelheid Hesse was a fictional character— someone that didn’t exist outside of blocks of text and colorful lines.
Samira gulped and winced. The sudden pain she felt reminded her of the damage she inflicted on her tongue earlier. It also served as a wedge of doubt. Pain didn’t exist in her dreams, at least nothing as raw and real as what she was feeling now.
“Oh my, are you off in another daydream?” Samira’s head whipped up to see the woman looking down at her. Compared to where she had been before, the woman was only a couple steps away from Samira. The woman kneeled before Samira, forcing the university student to look down instead of up, before reaching out to hover her hand right in front of Samira’s. “May I?”
Though she didn’t understand what the woman’s exact intentions were, Samira nodded her head. The woman gently took Samira’s hand and pulled it towards her face— and softly kissed her knuckles.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Cloudburst,” the woman announced. “Adelheid Hesse at your service.”
Shivers ran down Samira’s body. This woman really was Adelheid Hesse.
#
The crowd murmured as they witnessed the scene between Adelheid and Samira. It was clear that they were questioning the relationship between the pair—but they were also curious about Adelheid’s existence as a whole—along with the monster that the silver beauty just killed. The gossip immediately halted as Adelheid stood back up, turning her attention towards the other survivors in the ruined steakhouse.
“I’m sure you’re quite confused and scared,” Adelheid stated the obvious. “It’s reasonable; it’s not everyday that your life is suddenly endangered by a something that resembles a failed scientific experiment. But, as confused as you are, I would like you to listen to what I have to say.”
When she saw that the crowd didn’t seem to have anything to say, Adelheid continued with her speech, “This little creature here is an Ephialtes. There’s a lot of different versions of them, and they have a penchant for destruction: something equally undesirable for you, since they’re indiscriminate between living and non-living. And these bad boys aren’t a government secret or mutated animals— they’re creatures from another world— my world to be exact.”
“Creatures from another world?”
“What is she going on about?”
“Is she crazy? It’s not like we’re in some fantasy game,” people whispered amongst themselves. Even if Adelheid couldn’t hear them, she could tell what they were thinking by their doubtful expressions.
Adelheid shrugged her shoulders. “It sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? But it would be too late to realize that when you’re dead, so I’d recommend you listen to me, even if it’s with a grain of salt. After all, the only reason why you’re still alive is because this area has been rendered as a safe zone for the next fourteen hours.”
Her eyes shifted slightly towards the right. “Ah, I wouldn’t look out the window right now, if I were you.” Her smile widened a fraction. “It might be a little too stimulating for your tastes.”
A gasp was followed by the sound of gagging. Adelheid sighed in defeat, “Oh my, what did I just tell you?”
Samira twisted her body to face the window. Gray fog completely shrouded the view beyond the glass, but as Samira leaned towards the window and squinted her eyes, the scenery began to clear up. Seconds before she managed to see anything substantial, her vision was quickly blocked by a hand.
“What did your parents say about doing things you’re told not to do?” Adelheid scolded in a playful manner. “Even if you’re curious, you shouldn’t do it.”
Samira’s inclination to peek at what was hidden behind the fog grew, but she decided against it as Adelheid pulled her hand away. Adelheid would catch her immediately if she tried to do it again, especially since she managed to do it just a few moments ago, while she had her back turned towards Samira.
“Continuing on,” Adelheid cleared her throat, “the easiest way to interpret this situation is to think of it as some game! Our worlds merged and now, you must fight against these strange monsters and survive. And just like any other game, there’s NPCs that can help you along the way! What you just experienced was the introduction—and now—I’ll be acting as your tutorial guide.”
Adelheid’s heels clacked against the wood floor as she walked back towards the monster she had obliterated earlier. She grabbed the Ephialtes corpse by the arm and ripped it off.
“Due to the unique constitution of the Ephialtes, your world’s weapons will be ineffective towards them,” Adelheid disclosed, “and as normal civilians, it will be nearly impossible to kill them with your bare hands. There’re three possible solutions for this issue.”
The arm in Adelheid’s hand snapped in half: she crushed the humerus with her inhuman strength. “One, is to get yourself a Warden— someone from the other world— to protect you. Just as there are plenty of monsters, there’s hundreds of other world residents that have the ability to fight against them. You can form a contract with them. What that contract entails, will be between you and that Warden. It’s not a bad idea, the Wardens are the ones who have to initiate the contract— and if you’re reliant on them— you could die if you’re stuck in a situation where they can’t reach you.” She dropped the arm.
“Second, is to find weapons and learn to fight on your own. Being self reliant is great, but there’s plenty of shortcomings: you’d be easily outnumbered, self-learning combat skills is difficult and too time consuming, and you’d have to be constantly on guard.”
“Third— is to get a Warden and learn how to become self-sufficient under their wing. The best of both worlds! It’s what I’d recommend you do. I’ll even provide you with one weapon of choice along with a small manual on how to use it. That way, your chances of survival will increase, and you can begin your journey!”
With a snap of her fingers, a flurry of butterflies whipped through the air, startling the crowd. By the time they opened their eyes, the steakhouse had become a weaponry room.
#
The weaponry room was filled with various forms of firearms, including some artillery, blades, and other equipment. The walls and floors were all white, leaving the room’s accessories to provide the pops of color. Adelheid unlocked all the cases with a control panel embedded in the wall. From what Samira could recall, it was a perfect replication of Adelheid’s weaponry room from the official art that came with her novel. Could this really be reality, and not some hallucination?
Samira approached one of the display cases—the one filled with an assortment of handguns. She reached out towards one of them, but then retracted her hand immediately.
『I don’t know how to use a gun. Even with a manual, I won’t be able to use it.』 She reasoned to herself. Samira looked over towards the other people in the room, who were examining the weapons with various expressions. Some were conflicted, while others were concerned or even excited. It was expected, most of these people have never touched genuine weapons. At most, they’ve used kitchen knives for cooking or maybe pepper spray or their keys for self-defense. Things like pistols and daggers, let alone artillery or swords, were unknown to them. 『Will these people really survive? Will I even survive?』
“Are you not going to pick something, Cloudburst?” A voice from behind Samira questioned.
Samira turned her head to see Adelheid towering over her. She swallowed her saliva before replying, “No…It’d just be a waste.”
“Why would you think that?” Adelheid tilted her head to the side.
“Well, what if I lost it?”
“I’m not expecting anyone here to return my weapons, but you wouldn’t have to work about that anyways.”
“Huh?"
Adelheid smiled and reached out to brush Samira’s hair behind her ear. “Didn’t I tell you earlier at that rundown steakhouse? That I would be at your service. There’s nothing for you to worry about since I intended to become your Warden from the start.”
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