I was seized with nausea at the sight before my eyes. The reddish form was a heap of corpses that had been dragged and stacked on top of each other. I now understood where the terrible smell of iron that I had been noticing for a while was coming from. It was actually, from the start, the stench of the bodies that caused this abomination.

They had been savagely torn apart, for some missing an arm, others a leg. And I wouldn't be surprised if, for some, nothing remained except the puddle of blood in which all the bodies lay. Whatever the person who did this was, they were not human.

I struggled to hold back vomit, the unbearable smell hanging in the air only making it more difficult.

I heard the policewoman behind me climb up the pile of rubble.

"Don't come any closer!"

I spoke these words in such an authoritative tone and with such vivacity that she jumped and stopped dead in her tracks. She must not see this sight.

Any normally constituted human would not be able to endure such a horrific sight. Although I tried not to show it, this atrocity disgusted me to the highest degree. I clenched my fists.

I descended slowly to avoid slipping and joined her. As I wondered how to escape this reality, a message from the system appeared before me.

[Time remaining before system shutdown in this reality: 30 min.]

The policewoman looked at me.

"If I understand correctly, we have to wait without doing anything?"

"I suppose..."

From what I had experienced so far, the system seemed to guide us each time. But waiting, even for thirty minutes in these ruins, would surely be more complicated than she seemed to think.

"We should move."

She replied, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to stay still. If this reality is going to be destroyed as the system said, and if people have also been informed, it will be chaos."

I pointed to the mound of corpses hidden behind the rubble.

"And I don't want to encounter the person who did this."

I turned to the policewoman, who shivered, indicating for her to follow me.

"Let's go!"

Although different in some aspects, this city was indeed the one I knew. The streets were the same, the street lamps were similar, and the cars resembled the ones I usually saw.

This world didn't seem to be different except for certain details, such as the fact that, to my knowledge, law enforcement didn't use narrow tunnels, and the screens that appeared in front of us were simply scientific irrationalities.

"Excuse me." A voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Excuse me!"

I turned around to face her. Despite all the effort she was making, she couldn't hide her embarrassment.

"You brought me with you, if you hadn't been there, I would still be underground, terrified to come out." She approached me.

"We haven't even introduced ourselves... I really would like to know your name."

And there it was, human relationships were inseparable even in this world. They all strangely obeyed the same refrain, but I couldn't deny that if we were to continue cooperating in the future, not knowing each other's name would be problematic.

I was once again forced to say this name, synonymous with so much misfortune. A name that, despite everything, defined me perfectly.

She moved even closer to shake my hand with a symbolic gesture that seemed to amuse her greatly, judging by the radiant smile on her face.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Yoon Jiyeon, delighted to meet you!"

I couldn't destroy such infectious enthusiasm; I had to play along. I smiled.

"Pleased to meet you, Yoon Jiyeon-ssi, I'm Kim Honja."

As expected, she was surprised to hear my name.

I didn't choose it, but I wondered how my parents, who seemed to care about me, or at least in appearance, could have chosen such a shameful name. It could only be the result of divine punishment...

Yoon Jiyeon looked at me with a calm expression, surely relieved to finally know my name.

"Let's continue!" She pointed in the direction of a museum.

Traces of blood were visible along the roadside, as if bodies had been dragged along it. It was a wonder how in such a short interval of time an earthquake could have caused so much damage.

At times the traces of blood became more insistent. And what I feared finally happened. In front of us, around a corner, a stack of corpses blocked the path. It was impossible not to see it.

"B—Bweuarg" Yoon Jiyeon vomited at the hideous sight before us.

The limbs were twisted in directions and ways that were not normally possible. Their nails had been removed. Their eyes had also been gouged out and scattered around. It was purely and simply the work of the devil. I was overcome with nausea, which I suppressed by gritting my teeth.

"Yoon Jiyeon-ssi! Are you okay?" She struggled to get up, extending her hand to prevent me from approaching.

"I'm fine, what do you think? This kind of sight won't scare me. Let's continue."

When we arrived at the museum, we noticed that many people were also present at the entrance.

As we approached, it turned out to be a group of three people gathered around a young boy. We could hear them from afar.

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The young boy had stumbled upon them by accident. He had panicked when he received the message earlier that this universe was going to be destroyed and had gone to look for his mother, who worked as an office clerk in a major company.

"At last you don't need this money anymore. Look around you. Everything is destroyed."

The boy clenched his fists.

"I don't have any money on me."

One of the three men pulled out a switchblade from his pocket and flashed it in front of the young man.

"My blade doesn't like liars; you'd better give me your money quick."

The boy screamed in panic.

"But I'm telling you, I have nothing!"

Baam

He received a punch in the stomach that took his breath away. He collapsed to the ground. On the ground, between the men's legs, he saw a man and a woman running towards them.

The woman faced the aggressors and said.

"I think I heard he has nothing on him."

The man with the knife threatened her with his blade.

"And I think you should mind your own business."

[Time remaining before system shutdown in this reality: 1 minute and 30 seconds.]

The man clumsily stabbed at her, but the woman easily avoided it. Behind her, the man didn't seem to move. He looks like a spectator, thought the boy.

The woman straightened up and delivered two quick punches to the man's jaw and stomach, causing him to drop his knife and collapse to the ground.

The other two, seeing how quickly the woman had knocked out the man with the knife, took off running.

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I reached out my hand to help the boy up. He had brown hair framing a pair of round glasses. He wore a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves and brown linen trousers held up by a wide leather belt.

At first glance, he gave the impression of a hardworking and kind boy. If he had siblings, he must surely love them a lot.

The boy got up and faced us with a smile.

"Thank you."

[Time remaining before system shutdown in this reality: 30 seconds.]

"Where are you from?"

The boy looked at me with a hint of panic in his eyes.

"I need to warn my mother. She needs me, in case she doesn't make it..."

"You can come with us if you want. I'll do everything I can to help you find your mother."

[An entity tinged with regret encourages you in your kindness.]

Yoon Jiyeon whispered to me, "What are you doing?"

"What?"

"Why are you taking him with us? If the world is being destroyed, we'll already have trouble surviving just the two of us. Do you want to add to that?"

"But you're the one who rushed to help him."

She sighed.

"Do as you wish."

[Time is up.]

At that moment, we did not yet understand that nothing would ever be the same again.

Everything happened in an instant, so fast that I couldn't see or realize anything. I only felt a pleasant warmth. When I blinked, the landscape changed. The people and the museum had disappeared. Jiyeon and the boy were to my right, silent, visibly dumbfounded.

We were in an old picturesque shack. Above us, old wooden beams eaten away by moths supported an old rusty metal chandelier on which half-melted candles were hanging. A large fireplace, with a multicolored fire crackling inside, was placed on the right side of the room. The whole room was in disarray, various objects, each stranger than the other, were scattered around the room. There was a thick smell of old dusty books and ashes, over which onion scents hung everywhere in the room, and various dried flowers and plants added to the mix.

"Where are we?" The boy whispered.

"I have no idea…"

Yoon Jiyeon was interrupted by a loud noise from above, followed by a curse.

"Damn— What possessed me to accept that old hag's request."

The ceiling creaked under the rapid succession of footsteps. Someone seemed to be getting closer. Yoon Jiyeon looked at me with fearful eyes. "What do we do, Honja-ssi?" "We hide!" The young man hid behind me, immediately followed by Jiyeon.

From the stairs to our left, a man rushed down the steps, the sleeve of his jacket on fire. This caused the room to be slightly filled with smoke. He hurried to the sink in the corner of the room, under the stairs, and generously doused his sleeve with water, sighing. Then, he turned to face us, touching his burnt sleeve with a disappointed look on his face. "And there it goes, ruined. This jacket cost me a fortune." He looked up and saw us. "Ahhhh!" The man jumped back in surprise and slipped on an object lying on the floor, falling backward.

Indeed, seeing three strangers, two of them hiding like children behind the first one, appearing in his living room couldn't have been a pleasant experience. I'd better help... "Sir? Are you okay?" The man held his chest, his complexion pale and his face sweating. In my opinion, he had narrowly avoided a heart attack. "Lord, you want to kill me. Haven't you been taught to knock on doors?" He struggled to stand up, dusting off his coat, he must really love his coat.

The man had long deep black hair that enhanced the brightness of his blood-red eyes. He wore a white shirt over which rested his deceased thick black jacket covered with gold along the sleeves. "Are you here for a spell?" "A spell?" Jiyeon emerged from behind me. "Sir, could you tell us exactly where we are?" "At my place!" "We're still in South Korea, aren't we?" "What's this 'Korea' thing, are you feeling okay, young lady?"

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

It took about an hour to explain to this man the situation we were in.

"I see, you find yourselves hereafter curiously transmigrating into my living room..."

Jiyeon nodded excitedly.

"Yes— Can you help us, sir..."

"Thaddeus."

"Mr. Thaddeus."

I was truly beginning to believe that Jiyeon was more childish than me in this adult body...

"It's true that your case intrigues me. I am a member of an organization called the Order of Archmages. It's sort of my job to deal with cases like yours."

The eyes of Yoon Jiyeon and the boy lit up.

"That's true!"

"Naturally. However, I had never heard of transmigration cases before. By the way, what are your names, all three of you?"

"I'm Yoon Jiyeon. The man who never speaks over there is Kim Honja, and him..."

"I'm Park Min-Jae, pleased to meet you, sir."

Park Min-Jae extended his hand to shake Thaddeus's hand. Of the three of us, he was probably the best-mannered after all.

"Indeed, children, you honestly have strange names. It so happens that I need help. In fact, having you with me will be an asset, no one will know you here."

These words intrigued me, I leaned forward in my chair, resting my elbows on the large wooden table.

"How so?"

Thaddeus looked at me mischievously.

"I told you I was part of the 'Order of Archmages', but my work goes further than that. For several months now, strange phenomena have been occurring all over the nation of Seraphy. And some members of the Order may be involved. The 'Masters of the Arcane' assembly has therefore charged me with discreetly investigating within the Order. But I was alone until now, and I must admit that a few extra hands would relieve me. Since no one will know you, it will be perfect, and the reason for your presence here may be related to all this."

"I see..."

"However, I must warn you, this work is not without danger. Many transcendents have succumbed to madness or disappeared. But you will surely be able to find information about your case and eventually manage to return home. Take the time to think about it."

Thaddeus stood up, took a pouch from the wooden furniture near the table, and headed towards the front door.

"I have an errand to run, you just have to keep the shop and tidy up the living room for me, we'll discuss what we'll do when I come back."

He went through the door and disappeared into the alley. I approached the window to watch him go. The cobbled street seemed to come from another time, all the passers-by wore Victorian-style clothes. The few cars that passed by looked like antiques from another era, emitting black smoke from their single chimney and rolling laboriously on the rough road. On the other hand, a significant number of carriages of all kinds came and went in the alley. The houses also seemed to come from another time. Wherever we had ended up, I felt it was going to be quite eventful.

"Well, let's get to it!" I heard Jiyeon's voice coming from behind me.

She seemed determined to follow Thaddeus's instructions and moved around the room making wide movements with a broom she had found who knows where. Although her technique was unnecessarily efficient, it was nonetheless comical to watch.

"Hahaha!" Min-Jae burst out laughing.

She turned to him, offended.

"What? Why don't you help instead of slacking off!" And she threw the broom at him, which Min-Jae caught effortlessly, much to her annoyance.

"Pff— You're annoying."

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

In reality, Min-Jae and I did most of the tidying up, while Jiyeon wandered around touching everything she didn't know with a big smile on her face. I really couldn't stand that girl.

"We did pretty well, Min-Jae."

"Yes, even though a certain person could have been more active!" He shot a black look at Jiyeon.

"It's your fault, you seemed to be doing so well with that broom..." She smirked, satisfied to provoke him.

It was at that moment that Thaddeus returned. He opened the door wide in a masterful manner. He came in, threw the now empty pouch on the furniture, and put his black jacket on the table. It looked as good as new, not a single trace of burn remained. It made me wonder by what magic he had managed to mend his jacket.

"Ah— You really tidied up?!"

"Why, shouldn't we have?" Jiyeon retorted disdainfully.

"I was just joking. I didn't think you would do it."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Min-Jae sighing heavily. He had indeed suffered more during this cleanup than Jiyeon. Thaddeus noticed it and smiled.

"So, have you made your decision?"

We all looked at each other and nodded in unison. "Yes!"

"However, I must warn you. The life of a transcendent manipulating the Ether is not easy, and there is no going back. In this world, there are creatures neither human nor animal, guided only by a thirst for souls. By manipulating the Ether, you will be confronted with visions that may exceed comprehension. Are you really sure?"

"Yes, sir!" Jiyeon replied.

He smiled.

"Follow me upstairs, I'll show you something interesting."

Thaddeus climbed the creaky stairs, leaning on the railing. When he reached the landing, I could see that the upstairs consisted of five rooms. Thaddeus entered the one in front of the stairs.

Inside was a large wooden desk placed in front of a small checkered window. Various scrolls with writings stranger than others were scattered on the desk. A half-cut garlic lay in a corner of the desk next to poppies and a curious water that began to shine when I looked at it. A long white feather lay in an inkwell. In the middle of the desk, a mortar was black with soot, inside rested a small pile of ashes.

"Tss." Thaddeus seized the mortar, opened the window, and poured the ashes into the alley below before quickly closing the window. He muttered to himself, "This is the last time I take an order from that old hag..."

He walked to the left of the desk and rummaged through a shelf to come out with a curious object in his hands.

He approached, allowing me to observe the object more closely.

It was a glass ball the size of a tennis ball. Inside, a slightly bluish crystal could be seen suspended by different golden rings that intertwined around the crystal. Like the liquid on the desk, the crystal began to sparkle slightly when my gaze made contact with it.

Thaddeus took the object in his left hand. It began to levitate slightly in his hand. The golden rings slowly started to move, rotating around the crystal which began to shine more intensely.

Min-Jae brought his eyes closer to the object.

"What is this?"

"This is what we call an arcatron. We use it on young children to determine if they will be able to become mages. In short, it detects the presence of 'ether' emanating from your body."

"Magic?!"

"What, you don't have ether in your world?"

We shook our heads in unison.

"What a strange world."

He placed the object on the desk and turned to Jiyeon.

"Now it's your turn."

She stepped forward and took the object in her right hand. As soon as she closed her fingers around the object, the rings started to spin at a crazy pace around the crystal, which shimmered so intensely that I had to put a hand in front of my eyes. The dust on the floor had risen and was swirling in a small whirlwind. I could feel a pressure emanating from the crystal pressing against my chest. I was drawn to what emanated from the object.

Thaddeus took the arcatron from Jiyeon's hands and placed it on the desk.

"Damn, you certainly have a gift, to say the least."

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and gestured for Min-Jae to take his turn with the arcatron.

Jiyeon came back to stand between me and Thaddeus, a smile on her face. Min-Jae also had the desired effect, although inferior to Jiyeon he easily matched Thaddeus. Considering how he had reacted earlier, Jiyeon must be some kind of magic genius.

Finally, it was my turn. I approached slowly with apprehension towards the arcatron which was slightly shimmering with a bluish light. The object itself was lighter than it had seemed to me, the edges had tiny inscriptions engraved in the glass. If I squinted, I could see light reflections along the characters.

[An entity is eager to see your strength.]

Damn, I had forgotten about that one, it was really strange to hide one's identity like that while spying on the lives of strangers.

When I took the arcatron in my right hand and faced Thaddeus, Jiyeon, and Min-Jae, nothing happened.

"Haha!" Jiyeon and Min-Jae burst out laughing. There was surely a fake smile on my tense face.

[An entity is furious with itself.]

Thaddeus stepped forward intrigued and took the object from my hands.

"That's strange, even a non-mage manages to make the mechanism turn at least."

He manipulated it in his hand but nothing happened, the arcatron refused to work anymore.

"Jiyeon must have broken it. It's not meant to withstand so much ether."

"What! I'm just too good for this object to suit me!"

"Yes, yes, that must be it...", Min-Jae continued.

While those two were bickering, a detail caught my attention. Although motionless, the crystal inside the arcatron no longer sparkled.