Ji and Saji stared at each other. About five minutes had passed since one of them had said something. Finally, Saji couldn’t take the silence any longer.

“Can’t you…. Like… tell me how you did that?”, she pointed at the two koi which were still circling her.

Ji’s eyes brightened up. “Sure! I drew a circle on that stone an-“, he stocked mid-sentence. His expression changed, and he reached out with his hand to grab Saji by her shoulder.

Then the space around the two of them began to bend itself. Both their bodies slowly deformed until they became nothing more then blobs. The two koi circling Saji seemed to be frozen as they couldn’t do anything against it.

Ji exclaimed an angry yell. Energy was ejected from his body and stabilized the space around both. Their bodies turned back to normal and the two koi who had been frozen up till this point blurred as they dashed in circles around Saji. Their bodies seemed to dissolve into black and wide powder which went on to form a protective sphere around her.

Ji’s expression was horrible, his short brown hair was messed up. The look in his greyish eyes showed his fury as he rapidly rose to his feet. He lifted his head and stared at the ceiling of the roof. Of course, it wasn’t the roof he was staring at, but the sky above it.

“You really want to fuck with me, hm?”, his voice was bone chilling as he spoke. A terrifying energy formed around him and suddenly his clothes changed into a strange looking plate armor. Wind sprang up from nowhere and messed up the room. Books and papers were thrown around the air, the furniture was damaged and suffered under the terrifying pressure. Ji looked like an ancient war god, ready to go into battle.

Saji was frightened, but couldn’t move. The sphere around her seemed to protect her, but it also limited her movement. The only thing she could do was open her mouth and speak.

“Ji…”, her voice was feeble, but it somehow managed to pierce through the terrifying wind and reach Ji’s ears.

Ji glanced over to Saji and noticed her fearful expression. His mouth distorted, and he threw a last furious look up to the ceiling, then he sighed.

“One day…”, he muttered in a frustrated voice.

The wind calmed down and disappeared as fast as it had appeared, the terrifying energy retracted back into Ji’s body and the black and white sphere which had protected Saji turned back into the two koi which were still vigilantly swimming around her.

Ji’s expression remained somewhat cold. It only eased up after he had looked around the room and seen the damage he had caused. He looked over to the frightened Saji and his expression turned apologetic.

“I’m… sorry for this.”, he bowed his head.

“I didn’t think that bastard would attack me as soon as I came here…”, he looked straight into Saji’s eyes to see her reaction.

She remained silent, her eyes pinned to Ji’s. For a few breaths of time no one said anything. Then she slowly exhaled.

“I’m not even surprised.”, she said, somewhat calmer than Ji would have expected. In a sudden burst of energy she stood up, took two steps forward so that she stood right in front of Ji and looked right into his eyes. Her eyes narrowed.

“You. Are. Going. To. Clean. This. Up!”

She stressed every single word and suddenly instead of being a frightened frail girl she appeared to be a terrifying angry landlady who had just found her tenant destroying her house.

Ji stared for a moment, wondering how her attitude could have changed this much within only a few moments, then his frown turned into a relaxed smile.

“Yes milady!”, brightly grinning he made an exaggerated bow. Then he once again flicked with his fingers.

A second wind appeared from nowhere, gentler then the one before, and picked up all the litter that was scattered across the room. The book magically flew back to their original positions and the papers floated upon Saji’s desk to form a small pile.

Within a few moments the wind had placed everything back to it’s original place and the room was just as tidy as it had been before.

“Is this fine enough for the lady?”, Ji grinned.

Saji just shook her head. “I can’t even wonder anymore…”, she shot a glance at Ji. “So, what now?”

Ji looked at her for a moment. He disappeared.

“We are going to have some fun…”, he reappeared right behind Saji and pulled at her shoulders. She couldn’t keep her balance and fell backwards.

They both disappeared from the room.

…

A split second later a powerful red bold of lightning descended from the sky and turned the entire building into rubble.

Around the same time news channels suddenly reported about buildings and cities being destroyed. Strange beings seemed to pop up from all parts of the world. Chaos swallowed more and more of the world.

Posts on the internet claimed to have seen flying wolves hunting for humans and eating their whole bodies, other posts told stories about powerful beings protecting them from strange small humans who wanted to kill them.

There was a video of a small fairy-like being flying around a rural town in western Europe.

The human world descended into chaos as what had been around from the beginning of humanity finally showed itself on the surface of the world.

Somewhere, far away from the now destroyed building where Saji had lived, two figures materialized on the damp street.

It was night time and the wetness of the street as well as the small puddles that lined the street told Saji that it should have rained a few moments ago.

All around them were bright lights. They reflected in the water and illuminated the night. Music and a milliard other sounds mixed into the typical background sounds of a large city. Neon signs advertised every type of shop one could imagine. The strangest names and slogans seeked to attract costumers for their services. It perfectly fitted the image of a large city’s nightlife!

A man with small trees growing on his head bumped into Saji. He stopped and turned around.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to bump in you sweetie!”, His green mustache curled as if it was alife.

This wasn’t a large cities nightlife…. It was a gods nightlife!

“N-no problem…”, she managed to shudder. She seemed to be hypnotized by the moving mustache.

The strange tree-man seemed relieved. “Thank goodness.”, then he noticed Ji.

“Oh, if this isn’t my old boy Ji. Long time no see! So, you got that little lad out of the way before it started, hm? You haven’t changed at all!”, he was very excited to meet Ji, his mustache seemed to react to his excitement as it curled even more than before.

Ji felt slightly awkward.

“Long time no see, Cer….”, he stopped. “Wait a second, I will talk with you after I arranged something for this little girl.”, he patted Saji’s head. As he was almost one head larger then her it was truly quite the cute sight.

“Oh my!”, the tree-person called Cer exclaimed, a somewhat unappropriated smile on his face. “I still remember that time when you got a fairy queen to-“

“I WOULD… rather not talk about that now…”, Ji interrupted him, his eyes twitching a little. He turned to Saji.

“Saji, could you please go to this pub over there and tell the guy at the counter that you are with me? He will know what to do.”, he pointed to a small building a few meters away from them. A bright sign was attached right above the entrance.

‘A Dragons Dream’

It was obviously one of ‘these’ pubs…

Saji hesitated for a moment. She looked over to Ji, trying to read something out of his expression. He was clearly somewhat awkward and distressed. She didn’t know if it was because of the person called Cer or because of something else, but it was obvious that he didn’t want her to know about this.

She finally nodded. She turned around and went towards the pub.

It was located within a sleek four-story building, there were no windows on the ground level, only a single black door with the name of the pub written in golden letters onto it. On the next story she could see two balconies, each with a table and two chairs on it. Both had strange looking people drinking and talking on them.

She really wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to go into this pub.

But to be realistic she had no real choice. She was somewhere in a place with strange gods and tree-people who called her sweetie. The only person she knew was a crazy guy who claimed to be a god and whom she knew from the internet.

Her situation was absurd.

In the end she decided to push the door and entered the building.

…

Ji watched her entering the building and turned back to Cer.

“...How... bad is it?”, his expression was serious.

Cer grinned and his eyes flashed in a strange light. “Oh, it’s hell on earth, literally.”