In a small clearing, a log cabin was being put together by a team of carpenters.

The leader of the operation set down the final log for the 2nd cabin of the day and wiped the sweat off his brow. He had a full beard and tied back hair and gave him the look of a seasoned lumberjack, which he was.

He looked at the clock he set up for his team and nodded happily. They were ahead of schedule by an hour. The team is doing great today... Maybe I'll grab some coffee since we're so far ahead.

"Bear, everything's done that we can do right now. Can we take a break?" Vonko called from the roof of the cabin.

Vonko Remza was the second in command of his little business, and he was an old friend of the man.

The massive man was Drenov Meiscoff or 'Bear' as he is affectionately called by his crew. He is a 6'5, 290-pound beast of a man who ran a logging and log cabin business.

"Sure, but we're going to nann's, grab anything you want to bring. Don't forget to bring your 'things'!" Drenov raised his voice for the rest of the crew to hear and grabbed his orange fleece jacket as headed out.

Drenov's crew popped up like meerkats at the mention of the coffee shop. They've done this enough times to understand what he was telling everyone.

"Hell yeah, Imma gonna get me her roast!"

"Cappuccino for me!"

"Mocha!"

Drenov slipped his jacket on and left for Nann's café ahead of the rest of his crew.

The place Drenov lives in was a town that lived within arms reach of a forest and a fixation on less advanced architecture, with most of the buildings being cabins.

Drenov smiled as he stared at all of the different cabins around. With more than half of those cabins, he built himself, and he held great pride in it.

Several people waved at Drenov, and he waved back with a smile. Him building their houses and his kind demeanor made him fast friends with a lot of the town.

He was so busy waving that he almost missed the 18 year old girl tackling him. He was about to get annoyed but recognized who it was and felt excited to hear the news she was going to tell him.

Drenov looked down with a warm smile to see the girl looking up at him with a wide smile. Her blonde hair and green eyes glittered with life and happiness. "Dad, I won the competition!"

Natilice Meiscoff was the adopted daughter of Drenov and his main connection to the internet. She was a genius tactician, or at least she was to Drenov.

With her incredible performance in real-time strategy games and recent attempts at tournaments, it has gone really well, winning sizeable prize money.

"Great job, Kub! I actually... umm?" Windows rattled, and people stumbled as an earthquake rose from ground with unexpected force.

"We should check on Nicole." Drenov and Natilice shared a concerned glance and unsure of what else to do they slowly walked toward Nann's café.

The earthquake only lasted 2 minutes, but it was enough to unsettle the father and daughter pair.

The two arrived in front of Nann's café when Drenov stopped. "Ah, right."

"I almost forgot because of the quake, but I wanted to give you something." Drenov reached into his jacket and pulled out a large silver coin with his face carved into it.

Natilice took the coin and flipped it over, and saw golden text inscribed on the other side, it read. 'Even if the world tears us apart, I'll always love and support you: Father.'

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"Why is it so ominous sounding?" She joked but held it close to her chest.

"I know you were planning on leaving when you turned 18, and I'm not great at technology, so we might not be able to talk a lot, so I used what I am great at instead to show my appreciation." Drenov hugged Natilice and noticed an old woman at the entrance of the café who gave a thumbs up.

He nodded and let go of Natilice. "Let's go in now."

Natilice opened the door to the café and noticed the lights were off. "Grandma? Did the earthquake knock the power out?"

She walked further in and yelped when the light flicked back on with Vonko and the rest of the construction crew along with numerous other of Natilice's friends jumping out, popping confetti. ""Happy birthday!""

"What, when did you plan this?!" Natilice was sure she never saw her father plan a surprise party, which is why she was so surprised.

"I did. At his request, mind you." The old woman spoke up. She had a large scar on her face, went through one of her eyes, and touched her lips.

"Grandma!" Natilice hugged the woman with fervor.

Nicole was a mother figure to Natilice and the owner of Nann's café. Her grey hair was carefully maintained, and she had a single blue eye. she was 70, but she was keeping herself healthy by running this restaurant.

Drenov cleared his throat and went over to where the cake was stored. "And to my daughter's future, let's begin this celebration!"

In response to Drenov's words, everyone cheered and clapped so much so that the entire café shook.

Wait, no, it was another earthquake, and everyone in the café glanced around nervously, hoping it faded just as quickly as it did last time so they could start the party.

But the earthquake got even worse, knocking several people over, and Drenov saw the coffee machine tipping towards Nicole and Natilice.

"Look out!" Drenov reached out and pushed the machine back into place, but the kettle fell off and spilled boiling water on his arm.

With that, the earthquake ended again.

"Are you two okay?" Drenov didn't care about his arm and checked on the two he shielded.

Natilice stared at the entrance with a confused expression. "Dad... behind you."

Drenov turned around to see a red skinned woman at the entrance.

She was unnaturally beautiful with the eyes that could kill by just staring at you and pitch black hair that acted like it was dunked in water. Her head was decorated with horns and halo. Like she was molded by a master craftsman who wanted to mix the looks of a demon and an angel together.

But the most concerning thing was the fact she was floating in the air with no difficulty.

Drerenov hid Nicole and Natilice behind him as the horned humanoid lazily looked around the café for what she came for. "Stay hidden... Nicole, grab ben."

He could feel that something terrible was about to happen when he locked eyes with the women. "Who are you?"

"Just call me Phukaloz, the collector."

This was more daunting than the time when he stared down a grizzly bear.

He questioned if he was hallucinating or not as he readied himself to fight a floating demon that appeared from thin air. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This is a friends and family only party."

Phukaloz watched Drenov's response with a wide grin that sent shivers through everyone in the café.

The construction crew tried to get up to support Drenov, but a semi transparent substance held everyone else besides Drenov Nicole and Natilice in place.

"You'll definitely be a great monster." Phukaloz sounded like she was talking about a new toy. She brought her hand and made strange gestures that coincided with the air in front of Drenov to crack open to utter darkness.

The hole pulsed with the darkness that seeped out, threatening to swallow the room in its void like pull. You could see purple figures writhe inside the hole, just out of focus to understand what they were.

It unnerved Drenov to no end, and he wanted to get away from it as fast as possible, but Natilice was behind him, so he stood his ground. "Kub, you need leave."

"I'm not here for that one."

"What are you on ab-" Drenov's arm was grabbed by a large scale covered hand that emerged from the hole.

"What kind of demon!" Drenov shouted as he fought against the unreasonably strong pull of the hand and started to get dragged in.

"A dragonoid, actually. They're my favorite creations of the labyrinth." The horned woman clapped her hands together, pleased about Drenov resistance.

Fear racked Nicole at what was happening, but she knew that she didn't want to comfort Natilice about losing her father to a demon.

Nicole reached under the counter and pulled out ben, a 10 gauge shotgun, and racked a shell into the chamber.

Nicole didn't bother to threaten the woman as she seemed too insane to care about it and aimed it at the arm pulling pulled the trigger. *BANG*

The slug ricocheted off the scales into the wall with some damage to the arm but not enough. Without even batting an eye at the fact a 10 gauge was fired, she floated over to the hole and went in.

Drenov realized that he wasn't going to escape from this and turned to Natilice as he was being pulled into the hole.

"Sorry nat, I'll be the one leavi-." Drenov didn't get to finished as he disappeared into the hole, and it vanished like it was never there.

"D-dad?" Natilice slumped to her knees as she stared blankly at where her father was just moments ago.

Tears built in Natilice's eyes when a shock wave rolled over the café and text appeared in front of her.

[Rejoice, The Labyrinth Has Been Installed In Your World!]