“Apocaly!” Yugo shouted as they got up and ran to the fallen god.

The woman also got up but was more composed and rather calm considering the situation she was in.

“That… Bitch!” Apocaly was slowly rising to his knees. “She drained me of my energy when she attacked. Be careful Yugo!”

Yugo turned to the woman, who was now closer to them and had black flames forming around her arms. Yugo put themselves between Apocaly and the woman, despite visibly shaking, and stretched their arms out. As the woman was about to attack Yugo, the ground suddenly began vibrating violently. Yugo and the woman fell to the floor and portals began appearing everywhere. It was the start of [Invasion of Another World].

“We need to leave. This is the worst place to be right now. Also, my name isn’t ‘Bitch’, it’s Debora.” Debora glared at Apocaly, who was slowly getting up and floating. “Don’t forget that you still killed my boy. Although I couldn’t have done better, you didn’t have to kill just him.”

“You see, Bitch, this fabulous game defines you as a ‘toy’ and Yugo ne-”

A portal suddenly appeared behind Apocaly and sucked him in before anybody could react. After Apocaly disappeared into the portal, it also disappeared just as suddenly.

Debora grabbed Yugo’s arm forcefully and began running out of the street to the nearest building. It wasn’t the best place to hide, it had giant holes everywhere and was mostly destroyed, not allowing access to more than a few floors, but it was still better than being outside. As creatures exited from the portals, many began roaming the streets and a war between the plants and the invaders began. Blood, guts and death covered the whole area but eventually the invaders won. All because there were some that were coordinating the attacks and were able to create strategies to deal with the native fauna.

“Listen here, boy. You need me, I’m guessing from your god’s last speech. I also need you to survive. How about we use each other?” Debora whispered to Yugo, both hiding behind rubble of the ruined building.

Yugo studied her demeanor and the way Debora was talking. It felt slightly different from earlier, like something was taking over her or she was revealing her true self. Still, Yugo couldn’t risk being alone now that the city had become so dangerous. Nervously, Yugo nodded and placed Debora’s ring on their finger. Twisted energy surged from the ring and invaded Yugo’s mind and body, making them bleed from their orifices. Debora watched Yugo’s suffering but didn’t interfere, this was a test for them created by her and she needed to make sure they wouldn’t drag her down.

After a minute or two of struggling against the energy, Yugo was able to recover, forcing it to return to the ring.

“Good, although my boy was better than you. It’s a mystery how you ended up with a god such as that lizard.” Debora pronounced.

“Shut it and let’s go. Let me just see if the game has any information on what’s going on.” Yugo responded, opening their Quests window.

When they discovered the emergency quest, they became troubled. The shocks from the last twenty four hours helped offset the horror in their mind by some amount, but even then they couldn’t believe their eyes. To Yugo, it felt like the game was ending already and that this was like some final boss with the world at stake. It didn’t make any sense.

“We can’t do this. Not at our level.” Yugo began to despair.

Debora punched Yugo square on the cheek and they fell with blood flowing out of their mouth. She was obviously irritated by such cowardice and decided to take it out on Yugo. Just then, Yugo felt an emotion that they hadn’t felt since the beginning of the game. That emotion was pure hatred. They were feeling such a strong emotion toward the one person that could help them survive, so they had no choice but to keep it pent up. Yugo then opened their mouth to speak but quickly shut it after hearing a heavy sigh. Debora also heard this and prepared to attack whatever made the noise.

Two minutes. Five minutes. Silence.

Debora no longer felt safe and began thinking that someone was watching them from the shadows. She spared no time to be ambushed and grabbed Yugo, placing them on her shoulder like a piece of meat. She escaped out of the building when she saw that it had become devoid of life and ran back to the ruined part of the city.

Finally back, she dropped Yugo and returned to her ring.

“Boy, we’ve got company. Show me your skills.” Debora ordered Yugo, her black flames appearing on their arms.

Like clockwork, a group of men came out of the surrounding buildings. They looked more like savage primitives. Torn clothes, crude large weapons ranging from bones of dead monsters, scrap metal and sign posts to giant hammers and swords clearly made by someone that doesn’t have much knowledge in creating tools. Among these men, some used their element to create their own weapons, while stronger than the primitives, it wasn’t by much.

“Hey kid. Why don’t you just kill yourself for us? We outnumber you and you don’t look like you can stand for much longer.” one of the thugs, who looked like a bloated balloon of meat, smugly said.

Instead of replying, Yugo launched a dark flame at the fool and he began burning alive. Taking this as a sign of war, the other men began their attack on Yugo, using all sort of skills, from weapon reinforcements to elemental projectiles. This was useless however because of Debora, who was channeling her energy to Yugo, moving them how she wanted and making sure they wouldn’t get too injured. One by one, the group began to dwindle until there was only one left. This final thug fell to his knees and quickly surrendered.

“P-Please! Forgive me! I didn’t know you were so strong! We’re just trying to survive like everybody else!” the thug begged, clasping his hands together and praying. “Our group doesn’t like the weak but they still accept us if we do these things. Please!”

The thug’s endless begging was really starting to irritate Yugo, who just wanted to kill him, but kept him alive to learn about the things he missed in the city. They discovered that a group called Tyrant’s Apostles were taking charge of the ruined section of the city even when they were still here. And also that a bunch of humans and gods killed one of their commanders, leaving nothing behind. This pleased Yugo, it meant less trouble for them, but if they left this thug alive, that trouble could return to them. Almost like she read their mind, Debora commanded her flames to kill the man without Yugo’s permission.

Yugo didn’t bother complaining, they knew it would amount to nothing at this point. Instead, they began to plan a way to stay hidden even when the city was destroyed by the quest. Returning to the building Yugo shared with Apocaly for over a week, they were secretly hoping that Apocaly would jump from nowhere and surprise them. Unfortunately, no such thing happened. Debora left her ring when she felt it was minimally safe and turned to Yugo.

“You weren’t that bad, although you needed my help. Why didn’t you use your skills though? What skills do you have?” Debora questioned Yugo, who had an unhappy expression and seemed to be zoning out. “Fine don’t answer. I got the short straw with such a gloomy kid like you.”

Yugo took out their phone. It was almost out of battery and there wasn’t a charger in reach. Using the last of the battery, Yugo wrote down their thoughts on the current events.

The end of the quest arrived, ending in failure and starting the destruction of the city. Unexpectedly, everything turned dark.

“What is that supposed to mean? I have my own human to go to.”

I opened my eyes with all the remaining energy in my body. In front of me was a creature I had seen before, somewhere I couldn’t exactly remember. It was a small floating humanoid dragon, white and gold, with a large tail and eyes burning with fury. This seemed to be the creature that spoke when I woke up.

“Shush now little one. He finally woke up. Please take care of him until my descent.”

This other voice felt familiar but as I began thinking about it, crushing pain covered the inside of my head. I stopped and tried looking at the source of the voice, but as I did it disappeared.

“Since you’re awake, let’s free you.”

The creature freed me in seconds, like the binds were made of paper, but I just looked dazed at it.

“You’re...” I begun talking, trying to jog my memory. “You’re Apocaly, a Major Ring God, aren’t you?”

Apocaly was stupified at my assumption. I was right but I didn’t think that it could be true. After all, I had seen Apocaly in a dream. I had no idea he was real.

Staying silent, Apocaly created a ring in his hand and threw it at me. I caught it with both hands and stared at him. He just pointed to one of his fingers, signaling me to wear the ring. I looked back at the ring, its energy wasn’t as strong as Zeph’s ring so I knew that it couldn’t be its true ring, and put it on. I got up and Apocaly floated a bit away.

“Can you tell me something?” I asked Apocaly, looking earnestly at him. “Did your ring owner drain your Mastery?”

Apocaly was confused by my question, he crossed his arms and pondered on it. Then he finally checked his mastery.

Mastery: 100/100

“No. They didn’t. It shouldn’t even be possible anyway.” Apocaly replied coldly, closing the window immediately. “Look, just tell me what you want to do. The city is ruined and it’s the end for us.”

“Ruined? Then why are we still alive? There shouldn’t be anyone alive if it was ruined.”

Apocaly sighed and shook his head. To him, I was just being an arrogant human who was overestimating his ability despite being captured a moment ago. I ignored him and left the room, Apocaly flying close behind.

“Where are we going?” Apocaly asked calmly.

“We’re going to see those who left me behind.”