Romance… What a sweet thing, especially for the youth. The first love, the first kiss, the first heartbreak, truly a thing of wonders for everyone alive. As I thought about this, in the corner of my eye I noticed a gorgeous girl and a pretty boy wearing school uniforms.

Just one look and you could clearly see that both of them were flirting with each other. The girl was seductively playing with her long black hair and the guy was doing his best to look impressive and strong.

What a cute couple… I think I might puke…

“Hey Dorian, what are you doing later?” Someone approached me. Well not someone, but my best friend Jamie, a boy with short black hair and blue eyes. He wore his uniform loosely and you could tell he didn’t care about appearances. While talking he didn’t even look at me, instead his gaze was fixated on his phone, where he checked out the lewd fan-art of video game characters.

“Are you crazy?! You can’t look at that in public! We could get expelled! We are in school right now and- OH, look it’s the best girl of this anime season!” While Jamie was a definite degenerate, no questions asked, I had to admit that so was I. We both stood next to our lockers staring at the phone, completely taken in by the girls shown on the small screen.

“So, what are you doing later? I found this new bar we should check out.” Jamie still hadn’t taken his eyes of his phone and to be frankly, neither had I while answering him.

“Yeah sure I’m down. But I have chemistry till the tenth lesson. Let’s meet up at 17:30 in front of the school.”

“Alright, fine by me.”

Thus, my plan of watching the newest episodes of the anime series currently airing were cancelled and I would go to some bar I didn’t even know the name of. In other words a typical Friday for us.

When the bell rung we split up and walked towards where our next classes would take place. He had psychology while I needed to prepare an experiment. What a pain in the ass, but I think that’s what school’s all about. Preparing you for the depressed life you will certainly have one day. Well, if that really is the reason why schools exist, then our school is doing an amazing job in my book…

* * * * *

“What are we supposed to do next?” I wore a lab-coat over my t-shirt while holding a test tube filled with acid in one and a pack of matches in my other hand. A girl was reading the paper we got handed out once again and gave me a confused look. I sighed. What could possibly go wrong, right?

“Hey Dorian, psychology ended earlier today, so I will- Oh, what are you doing right now?” Jamie came up to my table. My lab partner was still reading the instructions, seemingly more puzzled than the first time she read it. Still in thoughts and oblivious to her surroundings she muttered something about gloves and walked away to the front, where our teacher was sitting with a bored expression on his face while reading a newspaper instead of helping us. He didn't care about the fact that a random student had just walked into the laboratory either, as long as no one died he was fine with everything.

“Hey, can’t you just finish this experiment and leave earlier? Just say you feel sick or something.” Jamie's proposal sounded tempting.

“Considering who our teacher is I think I could just leave without any excuses… But I want to at least finish this experiment.” We both looked at each other and began to grin. I gave him safety goggles and put away the matches. We would probably need them later but not now…

“Well, here goes nothing…” I began adding the acid to the substance in the measuring cup on the table and well, how should I put this… We really should have read the instructions more clearly…

BOOM!!!

The explosion was big enough to swallow both me and Jamie whole, yet it stopped right before hitting the other students. I was a bit disappointed, because if I had to die, I could at least go out with a massive worldwide incident or something…

Then, in the blink of an eye everything went white. I stumbled through a room of infinite nothingness, with no direction or goal. It was weirdly relaxing, I had no problems, and nothing awaited me. It was the best feeling I could hope for, until…

“Wait a minute… I AM DEAD!” Realizing what had happened, I was pissed. Not because of the fact that I had died, no I had another problem with the situation at hand. I was conscious. Or maybe this was heaven… I burst out laughing. As if I would go to heaven… But this didn’t feel like hell either. What was happening to me?

“Goddamn it I am an atheist, this situation can’t be real…” Yes, that was the problem. Every fibre of my being screamed that this wasn’t what death feels like. Simply because death didn’t feel like anything. Because you can’t feel. You are dead, you cease to exist. In no way was this death. I couldn’t accept that.

Right when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the universe proved me wrong once again.

“Dorian, is that you?” Fuck my life. Why must that idiot also be here? There he was, looking as lazy as ever, flouting around in space as if it were a comfortable sofa. Still, in a weird way I was glad that he was here with me.

“Fuck… What the hell are you doing here? Why am I stuck with such a looser” Jamie looked as confused as I was as he insulted me. Not that it mattered, we often did that, it was just our thing.

“I could ask you the same thing. Anyway we aren’t dead, that is a given.” I explained.

“Wait… do you mean… DRUGS?! Could it be that we are laying on the floor of the laboratory because the explosion wasn’t actually an explosion but some kind of drug?” It would be a nice theory… If it wasn’t the dumbest thing I had ever heard.

“No you idiot. It was an explosion of the deadly kind. However we aren’t dead, you having a body confirms it.” To confirm that we weren’t astral projections or anything of the likes, I punched Jamie in his ribs, which he repaid by doing the same. We both were writhing in pain, but at least everything I was theorizing about had just been proven correctly with the pain we felt.

“YOU HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN IN HERE FOR THREE MINUTES AND YOU ALREADY MANAGED TO INFLICT PAIN ON EACH OTHER????!!!!”

Huh? Where did that voice come from? I was intrigued, I had never heard such a beautiful voice in my life before. It was the voice of a girl, no the voice of an angel bringing its blessing upon us. Wait, this is getting to religious for me… Let’s just say her voice was hypnotising.

Once again everything went white and Jamie and I found ourselves sitting in front of a goddess. Usually I would refrain from using such a word, however this time it was accurate. As soon as I gazed upon her, I could tell she was the real deal, an actual god. You cannot even begin to imagine how incredibly annoying that was for me.

Her long silk smooth white hair was gently laying on her big breasts. Her clothes consisted of a white gown she wore with dignity and her face was enough to make anyone worship her. Despite her being this perfect being, her expression was everything but kind and godlike. She was pissed and her glare seemed to be ready to kill.

“In those few minutes you have been here, you already broke FOUR rules. Do you have any idea how much paperwork that means for me?!”

Suddenly she didn’t seem to be as much of a goddess as I initially thought.

“I already regret saving you! You aren’t even grateful!” She let out a heavy sigh while massaging her temple. “Okay, relax Bianca you got this, just do it like you were instructed to…” She cleared her throat and regained her dignity by standing up and giving us a warm smile. With grace she began talking like a goddess would and not like spoiled child who didn’t get what she wanted from her parents like she just did a second ago.

“Jamie Jackson and Dorian Wright. By my heavenly given power I am here to inform you about the decision made about your future.”

“What, a decision about us has been made? This sounds like there is a council of old politicians meeting up in some shady establishment.” I couldn’t help but find this thought hilarious.

“HUH! Are you talking about the student council?!” Once again Jamie’s dumb remark made me chuckle as well as worry about his mental health. I refrained myself from saying anything though, because looking at this goddess named Bianca, I could tell she was struggling way harder than I was to keep in her comments about our disrespectful behaviour.

“A-anyway… You both have lead a less than religious life up until now. Both of you however have a good heart, buried somewhere deeeeeeeeeppppp inside of you. At least that’s what we hope…” The last part she muttered, but we both could clearly hear it and looked at each other raising an eyebrow.

“Thus, to prove your worth and to redeem yourself you will be summoned into another world, filled with magic and fantastical things! There, you will have to defeat the sinister Demon Lord Diablo, who has been tormenting the world for a whole year now!”

“Wow, one year… Epic…” Jamie wasn’t impressed in the slightest. And neither was I. “Diablo? Seriously how cliché can you be. And another Isekai where you have to defeat a demon lord? Nope, no intentions of doing that shit.”

“LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE SH-... I mean… Please listen to what I have to say first. Ahm, where was I? Ah yes… To defeat this reincarnation of evil, you will both be given unique abilities, befitting your personalities.” She giggled, but not in a cute way, but in a way a serial killer would before cold-bloodedly murdering his victims brutally. I gulped as I began to regret us making fun of her.

“Jamie Jackson, you will have the ability [Mind control], in the hopes that you might develop more empathy towards other humans.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean! Is this some kind of messed up hentai?! Well jokes on you, I am into this shit!” Jamie seemed a bit perplexed and excited at the same time. However after a death glare from Bianca he shut up and froze not wanting to provoke her any further.

“Dorian Wright, you will have the ability [Immunity], in the hopes that you might appreciate your own life more.” While it sounded nice in theory, I feared that this would become a curse haunting me in my dreams.

“Now, you will both be send into a world filled with adventurers, dragons and magic! I, the goddess Bianca wish you the best of luck, may you be redeemed when you return!”

A light shone down upon us. Jamie and I began to levitate the moment it hit us and just like in an alien movie we were sucked to its source. Bianca smiled at us waving us goodbye, she even shed a tear. Although something told me it wasn’t because she was sad about our departure…

Jamie was having none of it, he thought of it as unfair that she looked down upon us. He thought about it a bit and then, right before everything turned white for a third time, he screamed at Bianca.

“BIANCA IS A HOOKERS NAME!” And while it might have been my imagination, but the look on this self-proclaimed goddesses face was priceless and would forever be engraved into my memory.

* * * * *

“Oh man… Where are we?” Dorian was laying on the ground next to me, looking like he had died, not only physically but also mentally. While I had no idea how I was looking myself, inspecting my friend I was able to take a pretty good guess. I tried to answer his question, however all I could get out was puke, seemed like this ‘goddess’ gave me a little something for my last comment.

“Wow, now I am hungry. What about you Jamie?” Dorian said after my meal had finished leaving my body.

“Seriously? What kind of sick person are you?!” Sometimes I really was weirded out by Dorian.

“I was joking, if I see puke I also need to-” Then, he copied me and puked on the ground, which in turn made me sick, so I puked, which made Dorian sick and... you get the gist of it.

And thus half an hour passed where we emptied our stomach contents.

Damn that whore of a god, I swear that I will make her pay.

Looking at Dorian’s expression filled with the thirst for revenge, I knew that this would become our goal in the long run. The Demon Lord could wait, this had priority.

“We need to find water… As far as I can tell this is a forest in the middle of nowhere, however with a bit of luck we may find a river somewhere close.” I nodded in agreement and we began walking in some random direction with me leading the way.

“Let’s turn left here I guess.” Dorian wanted to disagree, but he was too tired to argue so he just shrugged. After a while I stopped. My feeling told me that now was the time to turn right, so we did.

"Ugh, we have been walking since forever... Why are you leading the way anyways?! I should kill you, then maybe our luck will turn." Dorian complained while making death threads towards me but I knew that he was just joking.

“Finally, water!” Dorian rushed toward the river immediately taking multiple sips of it. He then continued to wash his face and turned around to me. My wish to puke returned to me once again, but I managed to keep it in.

Why you ask? BECAUSE HIS FACE HAD MELTED OFF. His eyes were filled with tears as his corpse fell to the ground with his face up front. I came up to him my eyes also filled with tears. My best friend had just died, however if you stopped to think about it, he already killed us both with the explosion. Immediately my grief turned into anger. What an actual asshole. Like holy shit, how can you just die and leave me in this shitty situation alone?!

“Fuck you bastard… How could you, how...” I kicked the ribs of his limp body. I continued to let out all of my anger and grief, it didn’t matter to me that he was my best friend, he had left me alone in a situation he created. But after a while my anger faded and I was left with regret and sorrow. tears stared dripping down my face as I realized what I had just done.

Then, suddenly the corpse laying in front of me screamed out in agony. Dorian turned around, revealing that his face was still intact. His red hair grew back, as well as his three-day stubble and his brown eyes, all of it was there as if it had never been melted away by some weird acid river. All that was missing were his glasses, those were gone for good.

“Oh my god! Now I understand what she meant with [Immunity]! This bitch destroyed my dream of dying! I AM FUCKING IMMORTAL!!! GODDAMN IT!” He was pissed beyond belief but to be honest I knew that he was just putting on an act. Well at least I wouldn’t be the only one suffering. What the hell was wrong with this world anyway?! Acid rivers?! Just what kind of a mess had we gotten ourselves into...

“Wait, but I am certain that you drank acid. Didn’t you feel any pain?” I was confused that he hadn’t screamed his lungs out.

“… Are you serious? You do realize I drank this, so it went down my gullet. Do you have the slightest idea where my vocal cords are located? That’s right, NEXT TO MY GULLET!” He was really angry about my insensitivity.

“Oh… yeah, true…” I said abashed.

Still, I found it VERY impressive that he was able to keep himself together after that torture he just went through. But maybe he had already broken his mind and that was the reason for his casualness... Either way I probably needed to keep an eye on him, to make sure he wouldn't go insane. After all, he was my best friend and despite our constant insults, we did care about each other.

Dorian sighed in despair. “Anyway, while it did gave me unbelievable pain, I at least feel refreshed now… So now that this is done, I really need a drink, and trust me this better be a really hard one. First my whole believe was shattered, then I literally died and worst of all I am stuck with you…" He smirked at his own joke. "Come on, follow me Jamie.” When he was in that state of mind, I knew I shouldn’t argue with what he had to say, I had learned about that through experience.

“Alright, wait up for me!” I said, wondering what would happen next. But one thing was for certain: We were going to pay those 'gods' back for what they did to us.