Suta POV

Suta was nearly beaming with joy, finding himself right back in the elegantly furnished room surrounded by beige walls, the crisp, warm air filled with smooth jazz playing.

His chest heaved in and out while he keeled over his knees, desperately yearning for breath.

"W-we... made... it, haha... Sel, we did... huh?"

After catching as much breath as he could, Suta slowly rose, feeling a noticeable change in his equilibrium. Dizziness circled his thoughts. The surrounding furniture ascended, and the walls started to rotate in a 360-degree motion. He spun around, almost collapsing, but luckily finding stability in his footing. There, he found little Sel staring curiously at the hectic surroundings. For a brief moment, Suta was sure he saw one of the corners of her mouth tug upwards in a cruel smile. But he was more bothered by the sudden burst of black flames covering the little girl.

"S-sel, what's going on? Are you okay?"

The little girl jolted a little, taking notice of the change happening to her body. She held out her little hands to inspect the seemingly harmless fire across her body. She lifted her round head, her large, cute red eyes blinking aimlessly a few times before she creased an adorable grin.

"It's alright, Mister! Time has run out. But it's okay. This won't be the last time Sel and okayMister meet. This place belongs to Mister as well, after all."

Suta's eyes flickered when he heard that; he had already guessed something like that was the case.

'Great, so now I've become just like those protagonists in those novels I read. With demons and weird things sealed within them? Sigh...It would be strange if that weren't the case.' He reflected mockingly to himself. At least he was grateful the little red-eyed girl was cute and pleasant.

"S-so Sel will be looking forward to... to... auh." Her voice trailed off as her bright eyes lowered in thought.

"What's the matter? Tell me," he urged, noticing her countenance falling while that raging fire consumed her little self.

"Err-ah-err-we-well... it might be a little trouble coming back here without..."

Suta stared eagerly into those large scarlet eyes of hers. He could already feel his consciousness fading and a sickly, nauseous feeling stirring in his gut. But before he faded, he needed to know some things.

"You can tell me, go on- what must I do?"

"Dr-drag... dragon hearts. You'll need to find them first to set her free. She... she can't be freed without them."

Hearing those words, Suta hesitated a little before he slowly began piecing together the little he could remember about those visions of Seleste, particularly that foggy scene he recalled where she sat against her knees, surrounded by those figures graced in different coloured robes.

"Dragon hearts? Is that how she became..."

Before his words could finish, Suta saw the black flames eagerly consume the little girl. The walls around him had also started to melt away, leaving his existence lingering in a void-less expanse.

"W-wait, how do I find dr-dragon hearts? Why am I here, anyway? Wh-what is Seleste? N-no, wait... Who are you?"

His series of questions spewed forth in a wave of unhinged asks. The little girl smiled broadly in response. She stretched out her dainty hand away from the burning black flames. Suta could only stare at it, and after a short deliberation, he met her little hand with his own. Her snow-white, bony hand seemed a stark contrast to his brown skin. And most important of all.

She felt warm.

Moments would pass before he suddenly felt a sharp pain against the underside of his hand. He instinctively released the little girl's own and brought his hand closer to his questioning look.

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"You can call me Seline, Mister, and until next time, Goodbye now, Mister."

Like that, the black flame continued to consume her, leaving two glowing red eyes staring at him through the dark fire until her entire body faded into wisps of black flames.

Meanwhile, Suta was left nursing the throbbing pain against the underside of his hand, where he drew a suspicious look at the four grey symbols somehow marked against his skin. The symbols were peculiar, and he almost fell into a wordless trance watching them spiralling swirls forming a ring. Staring at them closely, he noticed the tiniest of these symbols, reminding him of an incredibly long serpent coiling into itself. The reminder of this dragon business resurfaced again, drawing a tired exhale from his mouth.

'What sort of secrets are you hiding, Suta?' Of all the bodies to be transmigrated into, it had to be the strange youth with an ailment that meant he couldn't draw Mana correctly whilst also being at the forefront of what felt like the most bizarre and obscure story Shoba had ever heard.

In the middle of the four spirals, Suta noticed another grey symbol blooming, a strange, thin diamond that bizarrely started glowing with an ominous black light surrounding its edges. A wave of light-headedness struck him, and he felt his consciousness very quickly leave him. Before he could muster enough strength to say another word, he fell into that all-familiar embrace of darkness.

*****

Suta could feel his breaths escaping through his mouth in gentle cadences. Slowly, very slowly, the outdoor air finally bathed its warmth over his body. His gaze gently opened, the hazy view showing him a floor of white sand. He rubbed his eyes again, feeling a slight ache against his eyelids. Eventually, he found clarity again, lifting his head to see a swash of fading red covering the heavens. Strangely, seeing that terrible sky brought a sense of relief over Suta.

"Phew! I'm back then, I take it" he tenderly massaged his temple for a short while, slowly taking in his surroundings with curious wonder. He was kneeling on a white sandy beach, a cooling breeze combing over his back. Feeling the chill against his bare skin, Suta twisted around to find the emerald sea layered behind him.

Staring into the contrasting scene of the hellish heavens layered above a sparkling sea of emeralds, he felt a troubling premonition as the empty waves slowly drew a clearer picture of his current predicament. Suta remembered being carried away from that ship by those terrible-sounding black-feathered buzzards. He vaguely remembered feeling completely exhausted; he was also bleeding a lot from the little he could recall.

"Well... this isn't good, is it?" He mused to himself, unsure how he managed to find himself on a beach in the first place

"Better yet, how am I not dead... did it drop me here purposely?" He asked himself, lifting his gaze towards the red sky above.

While his brain failed to make real connections about how this might've happened, he focused on the white sandy beach. Soon enough, a short gasp broke between his lips.

Scattered around the white sands was a peculiarly terrifying sight to behold. Half a dozen black creatures lay strewn into a bloody mess of black feathers and bones. Their wings were broken apart and crisscrossed gruesomely through their bodies in some brutal ritual. Suta couldn't believe what he was seeing right now.

He rubbed his eyes a few times to ensure he saw things correctly. But the hopeful daze never ceased. Suta could only massage his temples, knowing by instinct that somehow he was blacking out and not remembering anything was at play for all of this.

He remembered something else and ended up inspecting his left shoulder. Another voice of shock appeared, and he realized there wasn't a single scratch against his skin. Now that he had further thought about it, he couldn't find a trace of blood anywhere.

He was forced to take a few moments to gather himself again.

"Damn it, Suta! Your body is too strange."

He held out his palm and willed his badge into existence. He exhaled a sigh of relief; at least his skills and abilities were intact. The last thing he wanted was to regress after all the hard work he had put himself through so far.

'Firstly, I need to figure out where the hell I am. And then I need to find…' Suta suddenly felt something strange shuffling against his thigh. His gaze trailed down, and he noticed a peculiar bulge. As one would expect, he lightly tapped it but immediately recoiled away, seeing the thing moving.

His instincts almost told him to smack the thing until it stopped moving. Luckily, he heard a very delicate voice—the faintest of yawns filtered into his ears. Suta suddenly recalled a particular tiny bunch of fellows. Shocked, his heart soon relaxed once he deduced who it was.

He watched closely whilst the little figure slowly crawled out of his pockets, legs first. After it managed to get its wings out, its tiny head followed. It shook its small head to free itself of the daze before its tuff of sparkling green hair relaxed against its head. It groggily looked around, deeply lost, before lifting its round head and meeting Suta's gaze.

Suta watched its large eyes sparkle with joy as it opened its mouth. But, like always, trouble seemed to be in wait behind every corner. He felt a tremor beneath him, followed closely by an echoing roar visibly shaking the sandy floor. Suta finally tossed a frantic gaze towards the large forest-dwelling not too far away from where he was. The trees in the nearby distance rustled and swayed as though threatening to collapse at any given moment. He peered his rattling eyes forward and nervously captured the distinctive sound of a significant presence announcing itself. A shadow appeared, a foot? Almost twice the size he was. Then, he saw the ivory tusk crawling free from the bushes, followed by the appearance of a massive leonine helm covered in grey skin and a long, pale, forked beard.

The creature carried three eyes with a terrifyingly sizeable muscular build that swept aside anything. Suta sat against his knees. I was breathless at the size of the almost 10-foot-tall creature with such an obscenely overwhelming build. The creature swivelled its large helm from side to side before its maw opened gapingly wide, and a terrible-sounding roar quaked forth.