“What?” Ray repeated. Arnold had to have known something. There was no reason he would be this evasive otherwise. “What do you know about this alien immersion?”

“Yeah,” Arnold evaded once more. “Let’s say I come from a special family. Alright?”

“Okay,” Ray felt himself nodding. It started to make sense, and connect with the previous couple of hours of his life. “Keep going.”

“Yeah. So, like, imagine I’m from a place where we sort of prepare for this kind of thing. Like . . . a club,” Arnold explained. Ray felt that he didn’t need to beat around the bush. “Like--”

“Arnold, are you a superhero or something?” Ray asked point-blank with a straight face. “Does your family have superpowers?”

“Something like that,” Arnold sounded surprised. “You’d guess that? First try?”

“Yeah,” Ray bluffed. “Let’s say I’m from somewhere similar.”

“Wow! Really?” Arnold exclaimed into his ear. His friend sounded excited. “So like, which faction are you from? And Arthur’s side or Merlin’s side?”

Well, there goes my act, Ray thought to himself. What is he even on about? He’d probably see through me, so I’d better come clean now.

“No one’s side, man,” Ray admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “Though I want to know what’s going on.”

There was silence for a bit as Arnold digested this tidbit of information. Ray could tell that the gears in his friend’s head were turning.

“--could’ve sworn you were someone,” Ray heard through his headset. It was faint, but it was noticeable. Arnold didn’t seem angry or irritated at all. In fact, he still seemed casual about everything.

“Yeah, so . . .” Ray prompted. He’d known Arnold for years. Surely his friend would help him out with some insider information here, right?

“I’m not allowed to tell anyone anything, Ray,” Arnold explained. “But I’ll make an exception since we’ve known each other for so long. Let’s see, where do I start?”

“How about you tell me what you know about the alien invasion?” Ray asked. It was important to figure that one out first, as that was the key to the changes in the world. It seemed like the voices inside his head were a precursor to that event, even though they stopped now.

“Yeah, so that’s more of an upper echelon kind of thing, way above my understanding,” Arnold answered. “My understanding of it is that there are certain magical forces at play here that have twisted the fabric of reality. Be careful outside, that sort of thing.”

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“Oh, like monsters are randomly appearing outside and stuff like that?” Ray asked, trying to confirm if Arnold knew anything about that.

“Vaguely specific, but yes. I believe that is a possible outcome of reality-bending,” Arnold affirmed. “So like, I was taught that there are multiple dimensions. From those dimensions, whenever there is a shift in the fabric of reality, monsters will invade.”

Ray found himself nodding along. It was all coming together. The structures above the cities, the goblins and strange monsters appearing near the Dublin backroads, and the powers that he seemed to be developing.

The next question seemed almost natural to him.

“What about the leveling system, then?” Ray kept it going. Arnold was being extremely forthright with him, which Ray appreciated to a great degree. “What does it mean?”

“From what my side can tell, it’s a precursor to a larger event. It seems like mana is secreting at a frantic pace from the large structures in the sky. You could say it’s terraforming the planet, even as we speak.”

“And you know this because?” Ray had to pause the conversation for a sanity check. He needed to know that Arnold was being serious. There were times where his friend could take a joke too far. “You’re not, like. . .”

“No, I know, this sounds insane,” Arnold backtracked earlier into the conversation. “This is like, pigs can fly, and shit. Trust me, I was like that too, when I was first initiated into the Society.”

“I don’t think I’m a part of your Society, or whatever,” Ray followed up quickly. There was something suspicious about how Arnold was coming clean about everything as well. It would explain a lot, however, if this was true. “Why are you able to tell me this now?”

“Well, all gloves are off. This is it,” said Arnold matter-of-factly. “This is where humanity needs to band together and survive. And you’re a special guy, but I’ve always thought you were from the other side.”

“Special how?”

“Special, as in I’ve always sensed something different about you. High school, community college, the like. You had this weird energy around you like you were someone from somewhere, you know?” Arnold explained it in a roundabout way. It seemed as if he was intentionally trying to get Ray to realize something, but couldn’t actually say it. Ray understood this much, at least.

“Okay, I see,” Ray replied. There were no direct connections, but there were definitely correlations between how Laura had treated him and how Arnold was treating him now. And what with the voice inside his head weeks before the apocalypse happened, Ray was inclined to believe that there was more to himself than met the eye.

He’d have to look into this later.

“What are you going to do?” Ray asked. Arnold had mentioned he needed to go somewhere earlier. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah, I’m leaving for some time. If you need help, just ask around for the KRT Society. That’s all I’m allowed to tell you. Good luck, Ray.”

With that, the discord call dropped. Arnold had left the call.

Ray sat there for a few minutes, digesting the information while trying to recall the entire conversation in his mind. He started to draw a few conclusions from the conversation just now.

Arnold, his best friend from high school, was clearly in some kind of cult. He’d been initiated into this cult in his teenage years, based on what he said. The cult believed in some supernatural or magical stuff.

Do I believe him? Ray wondered. Arnold seemed genuine enough. He’d also never acted like this before.

Ray shook his head to snap himself out of his analysis. He could worry about what Arnold said later. There was something else he had been neglecting the entire time and it was starting to settle in on him.

He was hungry.