My immediate reaction to my suddenly flaming hands was to start waving them around frantically, in a bid to put out the flames.

After a couple of frantic waves, and a brief acknowledgment that it wasn’t doing jackshit to help with the situation, I started to panic with constant cursing going on in my head.

FuckFuckFuckFuckFUCKFUCKFUCK!

What did Father say to do if I was on fire again?

I started to desperately remember what my father told me back in 5th grade when I had accidentally set myself on fire after a failed cooking attempt, but it was hard to concentrate with the flaming mass that was my hands.

That's right! Stop, Drop, and Roll!

The instant I thought of it, I dropped to the ground with a loud thump and started rolling around desperately for the next couple seconds. The rolling around was doing nothing to help; the fire was still burning brightly. So, I quickly stood back up.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?!

Out of decent ideas (not like there were that many anyway), I started to slam my hands against the table front of me as hard as I could in another attempt to put out the fire, accidentally setting the speech I had just finished to flames. When it set on fire, it started burning away rapidly, leaving only a pile of ash in the next moment.

That made the panic in me grow to despair, leading to a rash decision: I started to run for the exit screaming, “HELP! HELP! I’M ON FIRE AND THERE’S A BOMB IN MY HANDS! HELP! IT’S ABOUT TO EXPL—AGH!”

My screams for assistance were cut short as I clipped the edge of a table as I ran by, making me hunch over in pain yet I still tried to hobble quickly to the exit. My effort went to waste the next instant, as I magnificently managed to catch my foot on the leg of a chair and started falling towards the ground.

As the floor rushed up to meet my face, I faintly wondered why my hands weren’t in the pain one would imagine from being on fire.

If there is another life, I hope I can get a different power. Preferably one that isn’t useless.

Then all went dark.

* * *

Lisa was running, tears falling to the ground, as she rushed through the entrance of the club facility.

Stupid, idiotic Ben! Stupid slutty Stella! An idiot and a slut, what a perfect match! I hope you get married and have dumb slutty children!

I never cared about you anyway, you big, dumb idiot!

She had her head down, and her eyes closed as she sprinted across the campus, trying her best to put as much distance possible from the club room.

Why are you so easily tricked?! Did the years growing up with me mean nothing to you?!

Absorbed in memories of the past, she didn’t notice the peculiar sky, nor did she notice those that were frozen, gazing at the strange sight.

All of a sudden, a warm hug embraced her from the front, stopping her dash. “Whoa there! You need to pay attention, can’t you see what’s happening?”

Lisa was confused at first, before realizing that she had almost knocked into someone. She looked up to see a handsome man, who looked like he was in his early 30s. The man’s black hair was in a classy hairstyle, which worked well to frame his strong jawline and excellent features. He had blue, almost purple, eyes that were filled with concern when looking down at her, but Lisa noticed that he seemed to be pondering over something.

The man was wearing a tuxedo, one that looked extremely expensive, presumably to watch the presentations that were due to start soon.

She quickly unentangled herself from the man’s embrace. ”Hic! S-Sorry for r-running into you. I w-wasn’t – hic! – paying any a-attention.”

Lisa lowered her head from embarrassment, not wanting to show her distorted face, due to crying, to the kind man in front of her.

“You’re crying! Did I hurt you on accident? I was sure you didn’t hit me that hard… Here, wait a second.” The man pulled out a packet of tissues, with an eye insignia on top of the packaging, before handing it to Lisa. “Use these to clean up and take a moment to calm yourself.”

He completed the action with a dazzling smile, one filled with more charisma than Stella could ever have. It was as if he was an angel down on Earth, his kind gesture exuding with a certain type of holy aura that was incredibly appealing.

At the unexpected kindness, Lisa burst out into more tears, wailing loudly; it reminded her too much of Ben, of his kindness and consideration that he had always given to her, only now it was just to be directed at Stella.

The man’s kind smile immediately changed into one full of awkwardness.

Did she think I was some a pervert or something? That’s impossible; my smile always works in front of those middle-aged men, why wouldn’t it work for some high school girl…

“Hey! Hey… Don’t be like that; I didn’t mean it! Whatever I did…” He stepped off to Lisa’s side and tried to console her, patting her back gently with his right hand and stroking her head on the head softly. Which to his surprise only served to make her wail even louder. But, no matter how loud she got, everyone else was still focused on the sight in the sky, some only sparing a glance at the racket.

The man stepped back, with his hands raised. “Sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean it; I really didn’t mean it! Don’t cry, please don’t cry. I’m not a pervert I promise!”

Hearing the man desperately trying to console her with his words thinking it was his fault she was crying—misunderstanding her actions to the point of saying he wasn’t a pervert—brought a smile to Lisa’s face and made her chuckle. But as she was still crying, the smile made her look even sadder, and the giggles made Lisa sound like she was choking. Hearing herself, she covered her mouth in embarrassment and crouched down to the ground, using her other hand to shield herself from his view.

At this gesture, the man started to panic, looking around at the enraptured people around him, before resigning himself to something with a sigh. He turned to look directly at Lisa’s head. If someone were paying attention, they would be able to see his iris turn a beautiful purple, and his pupil transforming into an enticing crimson red, a shocking yet captivating sight to behold.

So it was boy troubles… Glad it wasn’t my fault, Myra would have killed me for making a girl like this cry. It seems like it's your lucky day, miss, that I’m here to help you out a little.

At that thought, he put his right hand about 5 inches away from Lisa’s bent head, his palm facing outwards. An unintelligible syllable drifted softly from his mouth, his eyes flashing back to normal, before retracting his hands and directing another dazzling smile at Lisa.

Lisa, who was still bent over, began to calm down promptly, forgetting her troubles about Ben. After a few seconds, she felt as if she was completely fine, and looked up once again. Seeing the sparkling smile from the man, she blushed, feeling even more embarrassed.

Ah! I should just die! I’ve shown him such a disgusting sight; it’s definitely all Ben’s fault! Stupid Ben! Look at what you made me do!

Seeing her gazing up at him, looking completely fine but blushing, the man relaxed, feeling a little bit smug.

I’ve still got it! How jealous would my son be, if he knew that I was the knight to a damsel in distress?

Thinking about that son of his, the man’s smile grew even wider.

That reminds me, he goes to this school, doesn’t he? What a lucky dog, he gets to go to such a beautiful place… When I was his age, I was stuck at home, learning how to assassinate people and the best ways to lead the family! Well, I guess that’s all behind me now… or it would be if I hadn’t picked up traces of them.

Lisa stood back up and sent a bashful smile back at the man. “Sorry for showing you such a distasteful sight. I was feeling down, but I’ve calmed down now.”

“Then it’s all good! No need for an apology, you did nothing wrong. It’s pretty curious that you still have the gumption to run around when the sky is like this now, eh?” The man lifted an elegant hand, pointing upwards.

“The sky…?” Lisa's eyes darted towards the heavens, only to be met with the spectacular sight.

Wow, the sky is beautiful…

The man chuckled seeing that she was preoccupied. “Well, I’ll be off now. I hope you’ll have a nice day. You should start heading back soon.”

Lisa gave no sign of response towards the departing man, still looking at the sky as if hypnotized.

He was a thoughtful man; I’ll probably never meet him again. For some reason, he reminds me of someone…

* * *

That was a delightful girl. It would be nice if I could meet her again, but that’s improbable considering what I do.

The sky must have been their doing. I have no idea how they accomplished such a thing; it shouldn’t be possible, Earth doesn’t have enough origin energy to support such large-scale magic like this…

The man was pondering while eyeing the surrounding scenery, dodging the people who were frozen in place without a trace of effort as he swiftly traveled throughout the campus.

It seems harmless, what’s the point of setting up some illusion array like this? What are they planning? I guess I’ll find out once I find them…

The man’s eyes changed once more, and he took one last thorough look at the area before stopping his gaze towards the top of a club building.

…There you are!

However, just as he was about to start running towards his new destination, his head jerked upwards. He felt a distinct change in the sky.

How?! The situation has changed! They’ve located him!

Pupils turning an even more profound crimson, the man sped up to a different location, heading towards the tallest point in the school: the principal education building.

I’ve got to stop them before anything happens! Victor, you must not be found…

* * *

What sort of situation is this?

Ben was captured not long after he had left in search of Lisa, by two extremely buff men who were very well-dressed and wearing sunglasses, one for each arm.

He wasn’t in a panic because the moment they grabbed him they said they were just doing their job, and if he cooperated then nothing would happen. And so, he did, and they brought him to a nearby alleyway.

It was just that, why the heck was Stella here?!

She was standing at the end of the alleyway, with her arms crossed, looking impatient. Her arrogant and noble temperament showed her prominent background as the men respectfully released Ben in front of her and stepped off to the side.

“Fancy meeting you here!” He flashed a goofy and endearing smile at Stella while rubbing his slightly sore shoulders.

Stella scowled back in reply, looking extremely cute while doing so. “I wouldn’t want to meet you anywhere while you look like some homeless bum. It’s your fault that I was slapped by your darling sweetheart, I couldn’t muster any energy to defend myself once I used up everything I had on treating your wounds. If you can’t control your woman, at least make it so that she doesn’t get so easily jealous. It’s unbecoming of a student of Setro Academy.”

“First off, Lisa is not my ‘woman’ as you put it. She’s not my ‘darling sweetheart’ either; we just grew up together. As for her jealousy… I’m helpless too! She’s just so cute that I can’t bear telling her to stay away, she hasn’t confessed to me, so it would be cruel of me to deny her feelings before she can express them. I know she’s a great girl; we’ve been together our entire lives. Sorry that she hit you, she has some small self-control issues. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Ben shrugged shoulders helplessly, offering some perfunctory words of apology.

“Oh? You'll make sure it ‘doesn’t happen again’ you say. Do you think that sweeps everything under the rug? You’ve said the same thing repeatedly since the start of the school year,” Stella glared at him. “There’s a need for some compensation. But don’t worry, I won’t ask Lisa to pay me back because you’re already here.”

…you’re the person that brought me here.

“Haa, if you say so. Well, come out with it.” Ben sighed helplessly, awaiting the order. helpless

Stella inhaled loudly, “Then it’s settled! You’ll be coming to my birthday party! It’s in three days, so make sure you get a gift befitting of my status. It’s an honor to get an invite from such a beautiful and important person like me, so you better treasure it. It’s a once in a lifetime thing for a person like you. And make sure you get this: it’s not me that wants you to come, it’s my father. He wants to check out your magical ability. Make sure you get it stuck in your head! It’s not me but my father! Make sure you remember that okay!”

She had released a long string of words rapidly in one breath and by the end of it, her cheeks were red. A second later, she turned away from Ben, not looking directly at him. Whether her face was red from saying that too fast, or embarrassment wasn’t apparent.

But the men standing off to the sides were looking embarrassed for Stella, with awkward smiles plastered on their faces.

”…heh…haha…BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Ben slowly burst into laughter, tears welling up in his eyes. He raised his hands to wipe the tears from his eyes. “That’s it?! Did you bring me here just to ask me to your birthday party? You even used some mafia looking dudes too!”

Stella’s face went beet red, either from extreme embarrassment or pure anger. “I told you, I’m not the one that wants you there! It’s my dad! If you don’t want to go, you’re the one missing out! Hurry up; we’re going to leave!” She gestured for the men to follow her out, not daring to look at Ben’s face.

“Wait! When did I say I was going not to go! I would love to go! I was just laughing because of how serious you’re taking this! I promise I meant nothing bad by it, don’t worry.” Ben stopped laughing, and ran up to Stella, halting her with a hand on the shoulder with a big smile on his face.

Stella, still facing away from Ben, but with her red ears visible, “ As I said, I don’t care if you come or not!”

“Hey don’t be mad, I seriously didn’t mean it!” Ben exclaimed, before thinking for a second.

Would she be mad if I asked to bring Lisa too? I might as well ask for everyone to come as well if I’m going this far.

“Actually, why don’t we have everyone from the club just come over? It’ll be enjoyable!”

Stella was silent for a moment, before muttering in a quiet voice, “So you really don’t even want to spend a smidgen of time alone with me. Still bringing along Lisa I see…” It was inaudible to Ben, but the men in sunglasses looked at each other as they heard it.

She replied in a louder voice, “Yeah, I was planning to anyway. Don’t think you had a great idea because it wasn’t one at all.”

She said it in a slightly rough tone, where one could feel the irritation lying underneath.

She totally got angry.

“I’ll be looking forward to it! If it’s Stella’s birthday party, then I’m sure it’ll be really nice. I also can’t wait to meet your father! My magic is getting better, and I’ll make sure to protect you better than what happened today. It’ll never happen again, I promise!” Ben told her with utmost sincerity.

“Who needs your protection, you big dolt! I would have blown them away if I was allowed to use magic against regular people. You just keep worrying about yourself. It was so pathetic watching you get beat up in front of me, if it weren’t for those rocks that came out of nowhere then you would be half dead by now.” Stella refuted harshly, but one could hear the tone of her voice become a little more cheerful. The men walking beside her saw the tips of her mouth raise.

“Did you have to remind me of that…” Ben became a little downcast, “I’ll pay the guy who helped us back, many folds over! It’s a shame that he didn’t leave his na—”

An undulation appeared through space, coming down from the sky. It was so intense it interrupted Ben’s speech, and both Ben and Stella whipped their heads towards the sky, observing a new spot of light up in the new sky. The point of light seemed to be growing bigger and bigger slowly as time passed by.

That… I’m getting a bad feeling from it.

Stella’s brow furrowed. “I’m getting some bad signals from that. We need to head back and quickly too.”

“You go on first; I need to go grab Lisa. She might be in danger.” Ben’s face was the picture of seriousness, no trace of the fun and laughter that was just present a second ago.

The moment he said that he dashed off in search of her.

Stella just looked at his disappearing back for a second before walking back towards the club room, softly muttering to herself. “He didn’t even look back for a second…”

Ben just ran for a short time, before luckily encountering Lisa not too far away. She was just staring blankly at the sky, entranced.

It’s a good thing she’s safe. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her.

“Lisa! We have to go back. It’s starting to get dangerous. Hurry up!” Ben grabbed Lisa’s arm, shocking her back to reality. When she saw who caught her, she resisted fiercely.

“Why are you here?! You should be out with your Stella instead…” Lisa sounded as if she might cry again, looking slightly surprised and sad at the same time.

Girls… I just can’t understand what’s going on in their heads! Your this, your that, what do you take me for?!

“This isn’t the time for that Lisa. Stella isn’t mine; we have nothing between us. If anything, you’re the most important person to me, and that’s something that won’t ever change.” Ben gazed into her eyes as he nonchalantly stated something super embarrassing.

At that, Lisa blushed, looking down, unable to meet Ben’s eyes as he pulled her back towards the club room.

It looks I was the most important in his heart! Take that Stella, you stupid slut!

* * *

“Aww looks like the fun's over for now. We almost lured out that cult leader too!” A pretty voice sounded out from the top of a building.

Don’t get greedy; it’s good enough that we’ve located such persons of great talent. It would be too much to ask for someone like the ex-heir of the Proel family as well. In the first place, you can't even handle someone of his level yet.

“Then I won’t fight him. When can I just kill the others? It doesn’t make sense to me to just keep them running around. I want to devour their talent already. That one loner kid seems to have already caught up to something already. It’s starting to get dangerous.”

You can’t be impatient. It’s all in due time; we are part of the fateless, unfettered by destiny. The rules of fate do not pertain to us. We belong to the realm of Gods at birth. We, with my wisdom and your supreme gifts, will reign as the ruler of all Gods!

“There you go spouting your delusions again… ruler of all Gods? What sort of shitty children’s TV show have you watched recently? You’re already dead, yet you’re still dumb enough to dream about some stupid things like that. We can barely even use magic here; the origin energy is too sparse on Earth.”

It’s not a delusion! That’s why we’re borrowing that organization’s portal to get us over to Soras; it’s filled with origin energy, unlike this barren wasteland here. It seems like its targeting something, and we just need to find what they are trying to get and hold on to it. Then we’ll be on the path to godhood.

“Hmm… well, whatever. Let’s head back; Ben has just about finished. It'd be suspicious if I take too long up here."

The point of light in the sky was reflected in amber eyes before the owner turned back around, slowly descending the stairs.