When I felt the ground shaking underneath me, my first thought was that it was the Otherworlder that caused it.

With my head was still buried in my mom’s chest, I felt her tense slightly when the tremors started, no doubt thinking the same thing that I was.

“Do you think-“

“Shh,” she said, muffling my words with a gentle squeeze that pulled me closer. “I’m sure it’s just a little earthquake. It’s not so bad.”

I decided to put my trust in her, just because I desperately wanted it to be true. To be fair, it wasn’t all blind faith. She was right that it wasn’t so bad. We’d definitely had worse earthquakes before. If I wasn’t laying down, mostly sprawled against the floor I wasn’t sure I would’ve noticed. Though there was a quiet rumble in the air, the tremors were weak enough that none of the furniture was rattling.

I let out a quiet sigh of relief.

I let out another quiet sigh of relief.

And another.

Eventually, I was vaguely aware that I was hyperventilating, as if sighing rapidly could somehow summon my relief through brute force.

Why weren’t the tremors fading?

Was that screaming I heard in the distance?

“Mom?” I didn’t want to ask any questions, dreading what the answers would be.

My mom looked nervously between me and the door that dad was standing behind. Neither of us had any doubt that the cause of whatever was happening was currently in a conversation with my dad, but at the very least, he didn’t seem to be in immediate danger. Whatever was happening seemed to be happening far away from us.

“Should we check to see what’s going on?” I asked, hating the question as soon as it left my mouth.

My mom bit her lip, glancing between the door to the storefront and the backdoor leading outside.

“Maybe we should let the others deal with it,” she said.

I wanted to agree with her, but thinking back on how Bran had abandoned me and how useless the Mayor had been, I didn’t have much faith in the idea. Besides, if this was really something that Ryuji was doing, it was pretty likely that nobody in the village would actually be able to do anything about it. The most that we could probably do was to run.

“I’m going to take a look,” I said, not wanting to get caught unaware if possible.

“Lena,” my mom hissed, trying to grip me closer. Fortunately, her arms were too shaky and weak to hold me down properly. “It could be dangerous.”

“I just want to check out what’s going on,” I said, easily brushing her hands away and standing up. “I’ll be safe. I promise.”

I didn’t wait for her response as I went to the back door and opened it.

Thankfully, the scene I saw outside wasn’t nearly as bad as my paranoia would have expected. The village seemed mostly untouched, and even though the rumbling wasn’t getting any weaker, the screaming seemed to be quieting down. At first, I couldn’t help but assume the worst, that the screaming was fading because people were dying, but I could still hear people shouting loudly across the village. While they didn’t seem to be happy, it didn’t seem like the village was devolving into a full-fledged panic

I looked around for any sort of explanation as to what was going on, and it seemed that many of the neighbours were doing the same. The street that had been so empty while I was leading Ryuji through it was slowly filling up with curious faces, peeking out of their barred windows to see what was going on. I saw more than a few rucksacks on their backs, stuffed with whatever they could have packed in the short time they’d heard of Ryuji’s arrival.

With more people seeming to feel comfortable enough to explore the area, I stepped out of my doorway, ignoring my mom’s protests not to leave.

I didn’t need to go far to see what was causing all the commotion. A large ethereal panel hung in the air, like a pane of blue glass floating impossibly high in the sky. On it was a sentence, written in a language I shouldn’t have recognized.

But I did.

Event on standby. Event will proceed after the [HERO] has accepted the relevant quest.

I had no idea what that meant, but it was clear that those parameters had something to do with Ryuji. But why could I understand what those words meant?

My thoughts were interrupted when I realized someone was calling my name.

I looked up to see Bran waving nervously at me. He stopped yelling when he noticed me staring at him and jogged up to me.

“Bran. What’s going on?” I asked.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” he replied.

“Why me?” I asked. Just because I’d seen the Otherworlder first, didn’t mean I was an expert on him. I had no idea why Bran seemed to assume I did.

“Because it obviously has something to do with the Otherworlder,” he said, anyways. “Do you happen to know if he’s had any interactions with Goblins?”

Whatever I’d been expecting, it hadn’t been that. I guess if it had to do with Goblins, I was closer to the local tribe than most of the other villagers, on account of my magic training with them. But what did Goblins have to do with the situation? “No?” I said, feeling too uncertain to give a confident answer. “I pretty much stumbled across him as soon as he fell from the sky. I don’t think he had any time to do anything else in the forest.”

“I see,” Bran said, obviously unhappy about the answer. “Then what are those Goblins doing, stamping around outside the village? You think it’s a coincidence?”

I stared at him blankly. The Forest Goblins were peaceful and I didn’t think they had any reason to want to gather around the village. It had been a while since I’d talked to Raine, but the last time we’d talked, her tribe seemed to still be amicable to us. Then again, I wasn’t the village’s ambassador and Raine wasn’t the ambassador for her tribe either. It’s possible that she just hadn’t been aware.

But regardless of if there was any animosity towards us, there was no way that their arrival and the Otherworlder weren’t related.

“I’m pretty sure it isn’t,” I said, my voice deadpan. “You think that freaky blue panel in the sky is just for show? No way the Otherworlder doesn’t have something to do with this.”

Bran just stared at me, his brow knitting together in confusion. “What blue panel?”

Before I could judge whether Bran was just fucking with me or not, I saw the panel twitch in the corner of my eye. The foreign letters twisted around into another indecipherable combination of unfamiliar symbols, but once again, I could somehow understand what they meant.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Quest accepted. Initiating event in 10…

My eyes widened as the symbol shifted.

9…

It was a countdown.

“Bran,” I said.

8…

“We need to get everyone to safety.”

7…

“Why? What’s going on?”

6…

“We don’t have time!”

5…

“All I know is that something bad is going to happen.”

As I said that, the panel disappeared, I looked around frantically, trying to figure out where it could have gone.

“What’s going to happen?” Bran asked, looking like he was about ready to run.

“I’m not sure,” I said.

As if summoned by my statement, I heard the faint sound of a door slamming open behind me.

“Oh hey, Lena,” Ryuji said. His smile instantly vanished when he noticed who was standing beside me. “Hey, is this guy bothering you ag-“

He was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream from the other edge of town.

That scream cut through the air, silencing everything. But it was only for a second. A loud howl sounded out in the air, echoed by a dozen voices. It was a miracle that I could even hear the Sherrif’s voice shouting over the sound.

“We’re under attack!”

“What?” Bran said, echoing my thoughts.

I’d never witnessed an actual battle before. I don’t think that was a very uncommon sentiment. Sure, I’d seen an odd fight or two when there was a dispute between villagers, but nothing that could be described as anything more than a scuffle.

But even though I’d never heard it before, the sound of battle was unmistakeable.

The harsh sounds of steel hitting stone echoed in the air, accompanied by war cries and screams of pain. The Sheriff tried to shout orders over it all, but the noise drowned out his voice.

“Dad,” Bran whispered, seemingly frozen in place. I wasn’t sure whether it was shock that kept him rooted in place or fear.

Ryuji, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem with running towards the source of the noise. When I glimpsed at his face, I saw a giddy and childlike expression, before a shockwave of air followed in his wake, forcing me to shut my eyes so I wouldn’t get dust in them.

When I opened my eyes again, I noticed him fading quickly in the distance but just barely. Moving impossibly fast, it was easier for me to track the large clouds of dust that he kicked up in his wake as he sprinted down the single road that cut through the village. Rafters and entire houses shook in his wake, but thankfully he wasn’t as destructive as I knew he could be.

“Should we stop him?”

It was the absurdity of the question that makes me think I just imagined it for a moment.

“How do you suggest we do that?” I asked, staring at the spot where he used to be.

Bran bit his lower lip nervously. “I don’t know,” he said. “But don’t you think we should at least try something?”

We? Why was it that Bran automatically included me in that suggestion? Did the situation really need me to attend to it?

“Leave Lena’s home alone, you monsters!”

Ryuji’s voice was somehow audible through all the noise, ringing loudly through the air.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them, I tried to ignore the stares from my neighbours and from Bran.

“Fine,” I said, too used to the the now constant state of dread I found myself in to give a stronger reaction. “Let’s go.”

When I arrived at the scene of the battle, I hadn’t expected that I would be able to do anything. Though a small part of that assumption had been because I knew I knew next to nothing about fighting, the main reason why I assumed I would be useless is because I didn’t think there would be a battle by the time I arrived.

I’d seen firsthand what Ryuji could do, and with the memory of his fireball spell still fresh in my mind, I hadn’t expected there to even be a battlefield.

It was why I was confused by the sight of Ryuji retreating as he dodged a strike from a creature that was most definitely not a Forest Goblin.

At a glance, the creature that Bran was fighting did have similar features to a Goblin, but its skin was a void of darkness that seemed to warp the light into it. The way that it refused to reflect any light made it difficult to even recognize it as a three dimensional creature, giving off the illusion that Ryuji and the villagers were fighting nothing more than moving silhouettes. Though I’d never seen one take the shape of a Goblin before, it was obvious what it was.

A creature of pure Aether. A demon.

I didn’t believe my eyes at first. I’d never seen a demon with such a strong outline, most of them being nothing more than clouds of black mist that could pass through most solid objects due to their lack of mass. It didn’t make them any more dangerous, but it did mean that they were more sentient.

I’d also never seen so many demons in one spot before. I knew that it was technically possible, but we didn’t live near any rips in the Aether that would be big enough for so many demons to appear.

My eyes widened when I saw another faux-Goblin swipe at Ryuji with a shadowy club. Were these demons working together?

“Dad!” Bran said, more concerned with making sure his dad was safe than he was with watching Ryuji’s fight.

I turned to where Bran was staring and was surprised to see the Sheriff standing at the sidelines, with his sword gripped in his hands and a deep frown on his face, his eyes locked onto the fight that Ryuji was having with the demons. I followed Bran as he jogged towards his father.

“Dad!” Bran said. “Are you alright?”

The Sheriff didn’t even turn to Bran as he spoke. “I’m fine. Just confused,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the fight. It that even if he was content not to join in, his body was tense, poised for a potential fight.

“What’s going on?” Bran asked. “Why are the Goblins attacking?”

I raised an eyebrow. Goblins?

“I know just as much as you do,” the Sheriff said, not correcting Bran’s mistake. “I’m just hoping that the Otherworlder won’t brutalize them too badly before they can explain what’s going on.”

I opened my mouth, about to ask them what they were talking about, when an eerie inhuman screech sounded out from the battlefield.

As if they were growing frustrated with the way that Ryuji was casually dodging away from their attacks, two of the six demons fighting Ryuji let out a shrill battle cry before rushing forward with their shadowy weapons raised. Before they could hit him, Ryuji held out a palm towards them.

“Enough playing around. Time to get serious,” he said, his words somehow clearly audible despite the whispered tone of his voice. “Flame blade!”

A crimson flame erupted from his hands, and my first instinct was to flinch away, expecting another pillar of flame to incinerate the area around him, but it was more contained this time. In an impossible feat, the flame morphed, defying the laws of nature and becoming contained in the unwavering shape of a blade.

Though I was awestruck by the sight, the demons didn’t seem to care at all, continuing their charge forward, their blank faces giving nothing away.

Ryuji gave them a lopsided smirk.

“Heh, too slow.”

I didn’t know why he was talking in a fight, but he was clearly powerful enough to get away with it. With a casual sweep of his magic, he cut through both of the demons charging at him. For a moment, the world seemed to freeze, the two demons standing there mid swing, stopped in their tracks. Then Ryuji flicked his magical blade to the side, and the upper halves of the demons slid to the side and fell to the floor.

“Who’s next?” Ryuji asked.

I don’t know why I felt the sudden urge to close my eyes bury my face in my hands, but I did anyways.

“Shit,” the Sheriff said, his face twisting at the sight.

Bran, for some reason, bent over and threw up.

I yelped and jumped away before the puddle could reach my shoes.

The Sheriff winced and stepped forward to place himself between Bran and the fight.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, kids,” the Sheriff said. “Shouldn’t be a sight that anyone has to see. They were good folks.”

I stared at him, confused at what exactly he was talking about. I understood that Ryuji’s abilities were frightening and disturbing, but I got the feeling that the Sheriff was talking about something else. The Sheriff’s body was wide enough that it blocked my entire view from the battlefield unless I walked around him, but I could still see the sparks and flashes of magic as Ryuji yelled.

“Fireball! Flame Barrage! Ember Storm!”

“What are you talking about, Sir?” It’s a little difficult to ignore Ryuji shouting out the names of his attacks like a kid, but I managed to ignore it. I was infinitely more curious about why the Sheriff seemed to care so much about the demons dying. “He’s just exterminating some demons, right?”

The Sheriff stared blankly back at me, and I had no idea why he looked so confused, but before he could speak, his eyes widened imperceptibly as he seemed to notice something appearing behind me.

“Watch out!” he said, reaching out to grab me.

I wasn’t a warrior. I was pretty active for a girl my age, but that didn’t mean I had the reflexes or the survival instincts to know how to handle myself in a fight. That was especially true when I didn’t realize I was in a fight in the first place.

I turned around, following the Sheriff’s eyes to see why he looked so worried, and was met with the sight of a demon standing over me. I had no idea how it had gotten there without me or the Sheriff noticing, but I could only stare wide-eyed as its shadowy club swung towards my head.