“Uh, this isn’t our classroom,”

When Laceresta mentioned that, I looked around and yeah, she’s right, I can’t believe I just noticed that now of all times, “why are we here?”

I continued scanning the place, it wasn’t an area that I recognized from the game but the color of the doors was a hint of where we were and I knew that we were in some hall that contained the club rooms, or at least the ones that didn’t exist back in the game because I don’t recognize anything around us.

Why were we here again? Prescine wouldn’t have led us here if it wasn’t important and it’s not like I told her about the club I was planning so why…

“For your IDs,” Prescine replied before pulling the door in front of her open.

She walked inside a room that, from the hallway, looked like a room where blank squares were hung in thin lines of string but closer inspection got me to see that they were just photos, and also that I’ve seen this kind of room before in movies so I’m now kind of interested about why people do this to pictures instead of being curious about why we were here in the first place.

I wanted to ask Prescine about it but I doubt she knows what’s being done here, she doesn’t seem like the type to enjoy photography but I also remember her mentioning that she likes to paint back in the game so I'm not really sure...

I caught a glimpse of Fafnir’s scaly body and thought of something that I knew was a good idea-

“Prescine,” my peer faced me, “you paint right?”

“Yeah.” She answered positively and after giving me a skeptical look- which I realized is because she was suspicious of how I knew that but I can… chalk it up to Adamantite… if she ever asked - went forward with another question, seemingly nonplussed, “why?”

“Do you paint the forests outside of your Kingdom?” I questioned back since I know that Fafnir, throughout most of her life, hasn't exactly gone outside of the stables she grew up in and since we're stuck in this Academy until the weekend, I thought that maybe she can sightsee through Prescine's paintings for the time being.

My peer's expression turned into happiness and she nodded at me excitedly, “yeah,” Prescine grinned, “I brought some of my favorites to my dorm too actually, would you like to see them?”

“Yep.” I turned to Fafnir, “and I think Fafnir would love to see that kind of thing too,”

“I would?” My Dragon faced me and tilted her head, she looked confused but I pushed on regardless and nodded while mirroring Prescine's excitement. Fafnir sighed while scratching the back of her head, she looked uncomfortable and I felt like I was pushing things but it's fine, this is the first step to helping her and I want to know how things turn out before adapting my approach and proceeding with everything.

This was one of the few things that I learned from a therapy show I was watching in my past life… and also something that I overheard Amber say to a priest in this one.

“Well… I guess I will, I’m- I’m not really one for scenery though.”

“Nonsense,” I waved her off, “you’d love it.”

“I hear the white spines this time of year is pretty great, especially now that the military has wiped out the current head of the Demon Horde,” I stared at Prescine, I don't know what she was trying to imply here but if she was thinking that Fafnir needed a vacation then I agree. I absolutely agree.

But also-

“Where did you hear that?” She stared at me oddly, “the thing about the head of the horde being defeated?”

The gesture was nice but Prescine was wrong, how the hell did the Pride Demon acting as the General for the current wave die? There’s no way the military- as it is right now, - could’ve killed the head and cull the horde this quickly, since there are no Prophecies or anyone with a Perfect Technique yet, Lucille would be needed for that to happen and she hasn’t gone anywhere near the battlefield so far.

As I mulled over how a Pride Demon can die so easily, Prescine continued with the proper context that got me to finally understand what it's actually about-

“There's a rumor going around the school, that the Demon General leading the current army got defeated and that the frontiers are starting to move forward,” the fervor and belief that her tone held before was now gone and my fellow princess was starting to look pensive, “it was why I said the white spines are safe since by now, if the head of the horde is gone then the various species of omegafauna and monsters there would have killed off most if not all of the stray Demons that got left behind by the horde.”

“I…” A rumor is going around that the front lines are safe?

It’s the Envy Demons, definitely, there’s a few left inside of the school so hunting them down may need to be prioritized because who knows what else those things are going to spread? That kind of misinformation is bad, for a lot of reasons.

Now I’m starting to see why teachers and other influential figures talked about how annoying it is to fight Envy Demons in their specialty back in the game because in a context where people actually believe their words, the misinformation that Envy Demons spread would cause a lot of deaths.

And that's just from Rumors alone, Envy Demons can also shapeshift into, for example, a person who possesses authority and lead their army into a fight where they'll get wiped out.

“They’re wrong,” I said, earning a stare from everyone else, “the current General, it’s a Pride Demon and I don’t think anyone can beat that thing without the proper tools, or the right kind of people,”

“Envy Demons.” Prescine said in suspicion and I nodded, she bit her lip, “I-” she clicked her tongue and shot an angry look at the curtains of a nearby window, “I’ll prepare to tell the entire school about this, that they shouldn’t feel safe just because there are rumors going around that the Demon General got defeated and the current wave got pushed back,”

“You should do that,” I agreed, “it’s a good idea, stop the misinformation from doing any more damage than it already did,”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“You can also help out,” Laceresta said, “everyone’s going to believe that the rumors are being spread by Envy Demons if it’s you who said it after all,”

“She’s right,” Prescine nodded, “I’ll call you from your class once everything’s set up,”

“I think it’ll help if you tell everyone about this during lunch as well, spread the word as much as you can,” Zath suggested and I nodded in agreement.

“I’ll do that,” I said, thinking things through, “I think we also need to start watching out for Dungeons forming inside of the school,”

“We do,” Prescine said and seconds later, her seriousness disappeared and her demeanor shifted into something more upbeat and positive, “but we can do all of that later, for now, let’s just… put that sort of thing at the back of our minds and focus on taking your photos for your IDs.”

“Right,” I looked around, “so, when are we starting to?..”

“Well we’ll have to wait for one of the club members to come here and take our photo-” and as she said that, the door to the room opened and we all turned to the guy walking inside the club room in well contained apprehension, and from the way everyone stared at him, I can tell that we all had the same thought- did this guy wait for one of us to say that so he can make his entrance?

And how much of our conversation just now did he listen to?

I met Prescine’s eyes and the unconfident smile that she shot me told me that this wasn’t the first time that she’s seen this kind of thing happen.

Well, regardless, he’s now here and we can continue to work things out and proceed with taking our photos for our student IDs.

I nodded at him while casually observing him, the guy wore the typical Academy uniform of a jacket, undershirt, as well as pants so I don't think hes anyone special, and most likely, is someone from either the Flora and Fauna territories or one of the many villages found inside our borders.

When he reached us, he introduced himself without the flourish and flowery language that I thought he'd have- “Hello, I’m Acros,” the now named Acros followed his words with a polite nod which I returned in respect.

Which I regretted when he… then jumped up in place lightly and grinned, but eh, that's still a lot more tamer than what I was initially expecting, “I’m honored to be in the presence of two princesses and three Prophecies,”

“Right,” I murmured, “you don’t think Zath is a Prophecy?”

“Is she one?” Acros turned to my maid before bowing in apology, “if so, then I am sorry,” he was… polite, that’s for sure- too polite, in fact, it’s making me think that it’s just an act and he’s just holding back how he would normally be, “what role might you have?”

“None.” Zath answered with narrowed eyes.

“Oh.” Acros chuckled before waving us off, “well- uh, I’m the head of the Photography Club and this Darkroom is our club room,” I looked around, huh, so that’s what it’s called? Neat. I wonder what they do here? “And some of our photos are still light sensitive so we’re going to have to stick with red lighting for now, is that fine?”

“It’s fine like this really, since it’s not like we actually need light to see,” my words earned a chuckle from the club head as he walked over to the switch next to the door and flicked it, washing the room with a red light that, even with my superhuman physique, I personally feel was kind of painful to look at.

“Some of us still do,” Acros’ smile was small and full of dull irritation.

“I guess…” I murmured, “so, when are we starting?”

“Now,” he gestured for us to follow him before leading us to a small box that took over one of the room’s four corners, “this is the booth where we normally take the pictures for IDs,” he explained while walking forward and spreading the curtain of the booth open, I peeked inside, all black, much like the exterior, “and usually, the room would be cleared of our work and free of any hindrances but since this whole thing is sudden… you know,”

“Sorry,” I smiled wryly, “we uh, can come back if you want-”

“It’s fine,” Acros shook his head, “I don’t really mind, especially since this happened because you saved us from a Demon Duke,”

“Right…” I trailed off, wondering what’s up with his sudden shift in tone- okay, well, it’s because he’s talking about me saving the school from the invasion but I had a feeling he had another reason for it. I shook my head and went back to peering inside the booth, which as expected, was empty save for a single chair at the center, “so, uh, we just go in?”

“Yeah,” Acros nodded, I turned to him and saw that he was tinkering with the camera, shifting it around in ways that I honestly couldn’t understand, it was already facing the chair right? Why move it around even more? “You all go in- one by one, that is, I take the photo, and then we’re done,”

“Alright,” I nodded to show I understood.

“It’s a lot more quicker than I thought,” Fafnir said and I agreed, I felt the same way honestly, “so who’s going first?”

“Me,” Laceresta quickly replied, “I wanna get this over with so we can head back to class and actually be productive,”

“... you know that you’ll still wait for us to finish right?” I pointed out.

“Eh, at least I won’t feel impatient this way,” she shrugged.

“Good point there,” I murmured before stepping aside to let her pass, “alright, you can go first, we’ll wait out here while you get your photo taken by Acros,”

“Thank you,” the last thing that I saw from Laceresta was a proud grin as she walked in.

After that Acros placed himself on a chair to the side of the booth before looking directly into a small box attached to it, “well, I think doing all of you might take a while,” he pointed out to us as his hand went down to grab a stick hanging by a thick wire, “maybe 10 to 5 minutes or so,”

“That’s still pretty short,” I replied while looking around the room, noticing various blank? Are they blank? Photos that had nothing but white on them, “we have a lot of time to spare before we’ll be late for class,”

“And even if you are, you’re excused- also, look at that thing over there,” Prescine said before pointing somewhere, I followed her finger and eyed the massive picture- well, it was more of a poster actually, - plastered on the wall, “pretty cool isn’t it?”

I eyed the poster of what I think were giant spires that touched the clouds, pillars that, from where I was standing, looked like a series of ribs big enough to pierce up the sky… wait a minute-

I scanned the photo more, I judged it thoroughly and didn't let a single detail get missed. My eyes went to the left side of the photo and I focused on the wet, mushy ground that even from where I am, looked like it was infested with mold.

What I was looking at wasn't a set of spires was it?

Gigantic ribs that touched the sky and a rotting ground that’s most likely home to large clusters of bacteria and viruses.

Where had I seen that pairing before?..

“What’s that? A sleeping Catastrophe?” Zath’s words got my mind to click the pieces together.

“Dread.” I replied in realization.

“Dread. The Dread?” Zath didn't sound like she believed me and could I blame her? Even I'm still processing the fact that the photography club somehow has a picture of this thing. She went back to staring at the photo but instead of the barely hidden confusion and apathy that she had earlier, she was staring at it in complete fascination and sheer awe, “you’re kidding.”

“I’m not,” I replied, “look at the ground,”

She gulped, “it really is him…”

“Yeah.” I shook my head, “that’s- how-”

I decided to go silent and simply take the photo in all its glory.

Dread was an Omegafauna that’s only ever spoken in poems, stories, and shattered pieces of lore but even back in the game, he was described by a lot of… veterans- and I mean actual veterans, beings who have lived for centuries, and saw the rise and fall of various heroes and demon lords, - to be imposing and dangerous.

And that was back when his dead body was still intact, still… there.

As lesser as it was by that point.

Lesser because even in death, Dread's presence as an ancient calamity that was befelled only because of the combined efforts of a past Hero and a Demon Lord working together was still there. Reminding everyone staring at his corpse just what he once was.

And no one knew where he came from or why he chose to wake up then of all times but it's been theorized that, thanks to his sheer size, Dread was a living fossil leftover from the time of creation.

From a time when the Goddess first created this world- from a prehistoric time that mirrored Earth’s own, where gigantic beasts of unknowable sizes roamed the lands and called it their own.

I don’t know just how big Dread was but his bones- his skeleton alone rivals the size of mountains and I can’t imagine how big he would really be if he still had flesh.

“A Vigolith took it,” I turned to Acros, and he was wearing a smirk, “I don’t know how our past club president did it but she managed to get a Hill to somehow go out there and take that picture, and that’s how we got it, and it’s our pride,”

“I guess it makes sense if a Vigolith was the one who took the picture…” I stared at the photo in genuine awe, just how many layers does it have? I mean- was the past president as special as this photo? She probably was- she befriended a Vigolith- no, a Hill- she befriended it enough that it agreed to do menial labor for her.

That’s- that’s downright amazing honestly…

“I personally think that only a Vigolith would be able to take that kind of picture,” Acros stood up and opened the curtain, and out came Laceresta, who stared at the spot in the wall we were all focused on, she whistled and nodded in approval, “after all, only living rocks would be able to survive the ecological disaster that follows after a Catastrophe’s passing.” He chuckled, “I thought that you would be able to know immediately your majesty,”

“Of course not- just who do you think I am to expect me to see a picture and think, ‘ah, a Vigolith took this.’?” I stared at him incredulously as he gestured for me to go inside of the booth, I did so without fanfare. I was about to take a seat before walking back to the curtain and poking my head out, “uh, will there be a flash?”

“Expect one, yes,” Acros nodded.