A booming magical ching rippled through the air, kicking up a mini shockwave which blasted past the two short girls and knocked them on their butts. Swishroll rubbed the base of her spine and tailbone while Kai-TI was thrown about inside Swishroll's bag. Lynnzi caressed her face in frustration as she brushed the dust and small debris off her face.

"Talk about a small fry; I won't even need to use Skill Silencer," a cocky male voice remarked as the crizeal crawler savagely clawed at the rim of the large golden ring. With each strike from the crizeal crawler, small amounts of viscous golden ink oozed from the golden ring as the glowing golden humanoid held a hand out to the ring. The silhouette vigorously clasped his raised hand, crushing the air between his grip with enough force it shot compressed air between his fingers and blasted the golden veil off his hand.

The golden energy unwrapped from the silhouette's body revealing the golding ink and glowing cyan crack-like veins perpetually covering his arms from his fingers up to just below his shoulders. As the rest of the energy flaked off his faintly tanned body, the humanoid reeled a fist back and tensed up his muscles before hurling a wind-whistling punch and clocking the crizeal crawler. With a crunchy cracking noise and the golden ring shattering, the crizeal's crawler's snout crumpled like soggy paper from the force of the punch. The crizeal crawler went flying across the balcony before slamming into a wall and bursting into smoke.

While Lynnzi sat in a daze with her mouth agape, Swishrool watched the figure standing in front of her in existential awe, taking in the figure's figure as he seemed freakishly familiar. The sway of his perfectly designed robes flowed with the wind, the ripple effect of his inky arms, and the cocky way he held himself created a comforting inch in the back of Swishroll's brain as she gazed at the guy. The familiarity in her mind only exploded into a revelation as the figure turned to face her.

"Z-Zalrotho?" Swishroll squeaked out, cracking her voice over every letter of the name belonging to the very Godly Guardian she had been working on moments prior to her sudden isekai incident. With the puzzled and bewildered look on Swishroll's face, Zalrotho tilted his head to the side in a robotic manner whilst having an eerily soulless grin and blankly stared at Swishroll.

"What's with that look, Creator?" Zalrotho asked cheerfully. Swishroll moved her mouth to speak but no words came out as the speakers around the city sprung to life.

"Attention citizens, an outbreak of crizeal crawlers has escaped from Xylolight's Infinity Dungeon entrances; anyone near these areas, management requests that you remain indoors until the dungeon delvers have dealt with the outbreak," the announcer over the citywide speaker system explained. Zalrotho raised his head and inhaled deeply as he took in the faint clash of claws in the distance, filling him with a distorted sense of glee and Swishroll with embarrassed dread of what was to come.

"Ahh~ this glorious sensation, the boiling of the ink of my body as my form turns from mere code to-.".

"Oi, less barely hidden villain dialogue and more dealing with the outbreak," Swishroll grumbled poutfully, her tone carrying a motherly stern tune which made Zalrotho instinctually drop his head. With his grin still firmly on his face, Zalrotho gracefully offered a bow to Swishroll, deeming the task as good as done before he turned into a blur in Swishroll's vision as he threw himself over the railing, kicking up a small gust of wind to mess up Swishroll's already messy hair.

Swishroll briefly stared at the spot previously hosting Zalrotho, sitting in place as the true impact of her situation only now hit her after being put face to face with a character of her own creation; despite that, there was only one thing on her mind. As her face turned red, Swishroll slapped her face in a vain attempt to hide her embarrassment.

"Why did I have to give him all that flavour text?" Swishroll meekly uttered, her voice seeping with regret. She continued to press her hands into her face, smushing it in a vain attempt to save herself from the embarrassment-fueled death looming over her.

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"Why do the hot ones always have a few screws loose...," Lynnzi whined cheekily as she pressed her knuckles into her temples to burn the image of Zalrotho into her brain. Swishroll slumped forward, the out-of-the-blue remark from Lynnzi filling her with confliction as her mind warred between feeling proud someone found her character attractive or wanting to crawl into a hole and die for the very same reason.

As the two remained lost in their respective mental worlds, the blaring alarm from the city speakers system abruptly cut out, catching the duo's attention as the silence snapped their daydreams short.

"A-attention citizens, it appears the outbreak has been quelled; although, the team responsible for felling the crizeal's crawlers wasn't able to be identified, so if you wish to receive the outbreak reward could one of your team members come to the Dungeon Hub?" a shaky female voice stuttered over the speaker system.

"It's going to be hard to find the team when the task wasn't done by one," Swishroll muttered as she felt the cold touch of a metal object against her cheek.

"You dropped this, Master," Kai-TI stated whilst poking Swishroll's kyvieno card into Swishroll's face. Swishroll sighed and received her kyvieno card from Kai-TI, her eyes widening slightly as something about her card stood out to her.

She brought the card to her face, the sheen from the sun and the refraction of light off the card hitting her face, making the difference on the card a slight struggle to figure out. But despite the obstruction, Swishroll couldn't see anything clearly but the same chibi kitsune engraving, like on one of the golden cards, but smaller had taken one of the places from the previous six dots on her card.

"... I see...," Swishroll uttered as she reached into her handbag and rummaged through its contents before pulling out the golden card with the chibi kitsune engraving, now no longer glowing. Gazing at the matching engravings, Swishroll lightly pressed her thumbs against the cards while sombrely humming to herself. An extremely faint thud chimed from the railing behind the duo, followed by Lynnzi giddily clapping.

"Creator, I have returned," Zalrotho announced, balancing upside down on the safety railing with a single finger. Swishroll unamusedly stared at Zalrotho's display of strength and athleticism before burying her head in her bag.

"... I can't even be mad... you act like this, damn those late-night flavour text binges," Swishroll mentally screamed while stowing the cards back into her swish roll handbag. Wanting to show off more, Zalrotho pushed against the railing and launched himself into the air. Striking multiple dramatic poses, Zalrotho spiralled through the air before landing in front of Swishroll in a kneeling bow.

"Man... I really need to get Chronia here before you do the thing," Swishroll grumbled exhaustedly. Lynnzi's expression turned to a blank smile before slowly rotating her head towards Lynnzi.

"The thing?" Lynnzi asked with a hint of interest. Swishroll deeply groaned as she swung her head back and glanced at Lynnzi.

"If we don't find one of those core things to bring this guy's other half here, this... kitsune will turn...".

"Into a giant ink kitsune monster?" Lynnzi asked as she finished Swishroll's sentence for her.

"Yeah... but how do you know that?" Swishroll asked worriedly. A sweat drop formed on her head as she feared her secret identity had been found out, although she couldn't be too surprised since she was using her alias as her new name after all. Lynnzi's complexion reddened at the question and rubbed the back of her head.

"Oh... you know It's hard to say... I've overheard otherworlders talking about a... thing called a videogame where something similar happened... and also heard something similar during history classes... so who can say," Lynnzi muttered, stumbling over her words as she meekly droned on; before too long, her words crumbled into meaningless grumbles and her cat ears wobbled around like jelly against the wind.

"And I thought Onixuvia had issues," Zalrotho remarked as he watched Lynnzi rolling across the balcony and straight into the SCC branch building.

"Comparing what Onixuvia has to simply issues is an insult to normal people," Swishroll uttered as she flopped to the ground and rested her head on her handbag, eliciting a strained beep from Kai-TI as she pulled herself out of the slightly smushed handbag. Zalrotho remained motionless like a statue in his bowing posture. Swishroll covered her ears and groaned in existential dread as the thought of having more of her game characters walking about filled her being with cringe.

"When will the funny cat oni return, Creator?" Zalrotho asked nonchalantly, leaving Swishroll to groan again.