After we finished with our coffee, I paid the clerk at the counter and we made our way back to my place.

I was still tentative about having her over, but it was a favor I owed to Claire, if not to our world. She was supposed to save us after all. The least I could do is offer up a bed in my old dingy house.

I planned to sleep in the armchair in the living room and let Hana take my bed, par the course of common courtesy. She was a bit weird about it, though, still not getting in even after I had switched out the old bedding for a clean set, which I originally thought was the problem.

She kind of just stared at it. It was the same look she gave my porch before we came in.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "If you don’t like it, you can have the armchair instead-"

She interrupted me immediately.

"NO!" She yelled, startling me. Noticing that she had raised her voice a little too high, she cleared her throat nervously.

"I mean… no. I’m just grateful, is all. Thank you."

With that, she plopped down on the bed.

She stretched her arms wide, as if to embrace the entire room, and then moved them up and down slowly and gracefully, making angels against the cotton sheets. Her light blonde hair spread out along the mattress, trying to claim as much space as it could for its own.

The bed creaked gently beneath her, nothing like the screeches of pain it made when I laid on it.

And then, for the first time since I met her, she smiled.

It was a gentle smile that pulled tenderly at her lips, pressing dimples in her dainty cheeks and alighting a sparkle in her eyes. I couldn’t help but think she should do that a lot more.

Content, I began to take my leave, peering over my shoulder at the strange girl.

"No problem."

I closed the door behind me. Only after I heard the click of the door locking did I realize I still hadn’t changed out of my armor, but it was too late. I had given the hero my room, and I wasn’t going to spoil her good mood by kicking her out for something I could just tough out.

"Well, guess these are my pajamas for today."

Entering the living room and approaching my armchair, I sank into it, exhausted. My feet were killing me from walking all day, and my eyelids were heavier than lead.

But despite all my attempts at a quick slumber, my mind still wandered to the strange girl.

Hana had thanked me for something pretty normal, something as simple and basic as neighborly hospitality. In fact, she had made it seem otherworldly, which I guess made sense, considering she was from another world. But even still, it made me wonder what kind of world she lived in to be so grateful for even the most fundamental of human kindnesses.

For her sake, I was glad that she was summoned here. It seemed like she had a hard time of it in her previous life.

But with that being said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned for the future of Prithvi. We had clearly summoned a delicate and disturbed girl to fight for our world’s peace. Could I really live with myself knowing that she was the one forced to fight the Demon King? Someone who had clearly been suffering before she had arrived, and appeared as frail in mind as she did body? What were we to do if she failed? Would we all just… die?

I don’t know. The idea made me shudder.

Pushing these thoughts out of my head, I forced myself to be more optimistic. No one had seen her in action yet, and it was much too soon to make an assumption of any kind. She could be a gifted prodigy, one that surpassed all the previous heroes for all I knew. Maybe she would be a a grand mage, or a sorceress of some kind. Frankly, I wasn't too familiar with their differences, considering I didn't really party up with people, but I'm sure they could get to be hero-level powerful.

Yeah, I think I’ll go with that for now. For her sake and my own, I’ll believe in her.

Maybe she'd be able to create earthquakes with her staff, or shoot suns from her fingertips.

"Hehe.... yeah. That'd be pretty amazing."

I slumped back further into the seat's wooden embrace, getting lost in my imagination. The grogginess of sleep slowly pervaded my senses, the comfort of my chair urging me into slumber.

"Definitely cooler than... sword guy..."

With that comforting thought, I let my eyelids rest, and my consciousness drifted away.

----------------------------------------

"-un…"

A soft voice invaded the peripherals of my consciousness, like a feather tickling at my ear.

‘What? I’m tired. Go away.’

"Sun…" The voice still persisted. Its urgency grew immensely, a whistling kettle over a hot stove.

"SUN, WAKE UP!"

My eyes fluttered open, the veil of sleep slowly lifting as a persistent, frantic voice resonated through the room.

"What? What’s going on?" I asked hurriedly.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"I don’t know, I just woke up too. There’s something happening outside." Hana trembled, her usually calm demeanor now strained with panic. Her face was glistening with sweat, and I could see the terror in her wide, unblinking eyes.

The acrid smell of smoke filled my nostrils, making it difficult to breathe. I tried to look out the window to get a general idea of what was going on, but the once-familiar surroundings were now cloaked in a haze, a fiery orange glow reflecting off every surface.

I could hear the distant crackling of flames and shattering glass, the sound of screams and eerie screeches blending into a nightmarish cacophony. I started from my chair, making my way past Hana.

My boots crashed against the delicate wood flooring, and I stumbled towards the door, my heart hammering wildly against my ribcage. I fumbled with the doorknob, my fingers trembling with a mixture of fear and anticipation.

As the door swung open, a figure stood before me.

It was bathed in a sinister, flickering glow that spilled into the room from behind.

Its hulking form was carved from the darkest granite, every detail etched with painstaking precision. Its hideous visage was that of a monstrous beast, a grotesque amalgamation of human, animal, and something far more sinister. Its gnarled horns twisted around its skull, framing cold, malevolent eyes.

It was without a doubt, a stone gargoyle. One of the very same ones that adorned the church’s walls.

As the moon cast its pale light upon the stony skin of the monster, an unsettling sensation crawled beneath my skin as I realized that its gaze did not fall upon me.

It was on the frail girl in the sundress cowering behind me.

"There you are."

It took one step forward, but I had already taken twenty steps back. Adrenaline surged through my veins, drowning my fear in a deluge of survival hormones. Now was not the time to be afraid.

Now was the time to act.

'[Flash Step]'

Scooping up Hana in my arms, I blasted rays of blinding light from my feet, expelling generous amounts of mana to accelerate as quickly as I could. Gathering concentrated mana into my fists, I punched upward, blowing the roof off my house in an eruption of blue light.

"[Puncture]!'

I could feel the creaking of my bones as my body strained under the acute magic use.

The gargoyle lunged forward, screeching, its serrated stone wings slashing forward at me.

"[Flash Jump]!"

I bounded out of the way, the attack grazing my leg and drawing blood. Hana let loose a scream as we leapt from the floor through the hole in the roof, clearing the remainder of the building, and landing right in the middle of the disaster outside.

The scene before us was a maelstrom of chaos and destruction, with people fleeing in every direction.

The few brave adventurers rushing out to slay the root of the cause were slaughtered, limbs torn from their bodies and throats ripped from their necks. Only a few could hold their own, the highland warrior and beastman among them. They fought back to back, and at their feet lie the shattered and bloodied remains of three of the beasts. They threw slashes of light and hammers of fire, blasting the gargoyles with attacks the size of merchants’ carts. Their individual magic firepower was leaps and bounds anything I could muster.

And they were still being pushed back.

The horde of monsters had mostly focused on routing them first, so none of them were looking at Hana and I yet. I was sure that would not be the case soon.

My pulse quickened, heart pounding in my chest as I readjusted my grip on the hero. Maybe those two could buy us enough time to escape. I had to get Hana out of here. I could feel the girl hyperventilating in my arms, gripped by a fear-induced panic. She wasn’t ready for this yet.

"[Flash Step]!"

I leaped forward once again, making a mad dash for the forest. However, my travels were cut short.

A thick, dark blur crashed into the ground before me, cutting off my route of escape and blasting dirt into the air. I could feel killing intent within the crater, a freak of nature tensing on its hind legs.

The same gargoyle from my front porch hurdled from the cloud of dust at a breakneck pace. I swung my body and threw Hana out of the way as far as I could. Then, I turned to face the speeding creature.

But it was already on me.

"[Redirect]!"

It slammed its anvil of a right fist into the base of my chest. It was a perfect strike, a blow that should have killed me instantly upon impact.

However, its force was dispersed, the fist being pulled slightly to the left like iron to a magnet. The strike that should have reduced me to paste only barely glanced off my leather chestplate. It also threw the gargoyle’s center of mass into an uncontrolled lurch, far out of range of a flame breath or bite attack.

With death narrowly avoided, and two of the gargoyle’s weapons left unusable, there was only one strike left to look out for.

"Die!"

I placed my left hand on the web of the gargoyle’s wing, preventing it from gaining any speed for a strike. Then, gathering mana into the palm of my right hand, I slammed a small, but concentrated burst of magic into the base of the gargoyle’s wing, shattering it into a million pieces.

"[Monkey's Palm]!"

Its rear now exposed, and my left arm freed, I cut down with an elbow while the gargoyle tumbled to the floor, piercing its back and blowing out a chunk of its chest with a penetrating strike.

"[Puncture]!"

Concentrated mana rocketed from the point of my elbow, jackhammering into the small of the monster’s back. Chunks of guts and bone erupted from the exit wound, pushing out blood like an unclogged drain.

I jumped backwards out of striking range the second I had finished doing my damage. The gargoyle crashed to the ground, unmoving and bleeding out profusely.

But there was no time to celebrate. Immediately, another gargoyle was on me, and this one didn’t make the mistake of fighting me on the ground. It swooped down at me over and over, slashing at me with its talons. Not wanting to use up any extra mana, I dodged the strikes with well-timed rolls. The attacks were quick, but linear. Nothing that I couldn’t dodge with a little anticipation.

In fact, with just a little more observation…

The gargoyle fell into a swooping motion for the umpteenth time. Once again, I rolled out of the way, and the gargoyle’s talons rent the ground where I stood. Spreading its wings, it took to the sky with a gust of wind.

But I was already on it. As soon as I was back on my feet after the roll, I predicted where the gargoyle might hover in the air after its attack. Aiming for that spot, I [Flash Jumped] into the empty space above the creature’s head. As I lost velocity and suspended in the air, the monster rushed up to meet me, still unaware that I was above it.

"[Puncture]," I whispered, activating my skill while trying to keep my presence hidden.

I somersaulted through the air, gaining momentum for my strike, then slammed my heel into the gargoyle’s head, shattering its skull with a vicious axe kick. The creature plummeted to the earth, leaving a smoke trail of ash and debris in its wake. It plowed into the ground below.

Landing not soon after, I touched down on its body in a squat. I drove a fist through the newly-made cracks in its stony head, punching through to the spongy brain that rested within.

"One more down."

I yanked my fist from its mush of gray matter, simultaneously feeling a wave of exhaustion and nausea washing over me. I was consuming my limited mana pool at an unbelievable rate, and an acute pain pulsed in the base of my right hand. It was probably fractured, or worse. The gargoyle’s stone skin had started to take its toll.

Hana was still sitting in the same spot I had left her, largely unhurt with only mild scrapes. That made me feel a bit better, but for whatever reason, she was staring at me, wide-eyed with fear. Her mouth hung agape, only making mild squeaks in an attempt at speech. For a moment, I thought I had scared her during my brutal display of violence.

But then she pointed behind me.

Before I knew it, I was flying through the air.