I wake to a loud thwong thwong sound. The earth is shaking. It's a mighty bell making a lot of noise. Frowning, I look for Tie'sha only to discover that she is sweatily plastered to me, her face buried in my armpit like some sort of pervert. Tie'sha's eyes are open but they look kind of dazed, like she isn't really registering what is happening.

“So Tie'sha, does my armpit smell good?” I ask with an innocent face. Tie'sha's face slowly grows bright red and then she throws herself away from me with an embarrassed squeal. Soon enough she emerges from the bedsheets looking a bit woozy. “Head... hurts.” She mumbles.

“Then you shouldn't drink so much.” I retort. “You drank too.” Tie'sha said. This sullen Tie'sha is cute as well, even if her spirit is somewhat deflated.

“Argh fucking bell, shut up!” Tie'sha shouts. With a grunt of anger, she rolls out of bed and puts her shoes on, stomping her way to the door with an annoyed look on her face as she grumbles about loud noises. Why is she cursing?! Is she trying to make me fall in love with her? Alyce-chan is ss...straight, you know? Is she? The mystery!?

Ahen.

Just when my Tie'sha is about to reach the door, it flies open and an armed guard is there. I'm about to blast his head off, but notice the Corneliáves livery draped over his gleaming knight armour so I relent. Phew, that guard has no idea how close he came to becoming my breakfast.

“We're under attack, the undead are everywhere, we have to evacuate!” the guard shouts, motioning us to follow him.

Getting up from the bed, I take my time getting dressed.

“Go away guard, I will handle this. Tie'sha you must stay with me, okay?” I say.

Both of them look at me in confusion as I pull on my boots and quickly equip the ear-rings from last night aswell. The black leather feels great on my skin, so I am thankful for the gift. It really does look a bit emo though, like something a goth or punk rocker would wear back in my old world. Along with my white hair, it makes me look so cool, all I need now is copious amounts of black mascara, eyeshadow, a whip and some chains.

There's a frown on the guards face, but Tie'sha merely looks confused and in pain. My poor Tie'sha, I wish I could heal your headache, but I'm a wretched undead with no access to healing magic. System-chan is not even showing my bandage skill in the status window, you know? That's how poor my healing skills are...

“I think I know exactly who's attacking. The bloody bastard has been nothing but trouble since I first ran into him during the lintball expedition.” I say as I open the wand-case and pick up my incinerator. Next, I grab the bag full of jewelry and money because there is no way I am leaving without my ear-rings and access to money. Money is important because it can do magical things like give me candy apples.

When I'm done, I'm pleased to find that the tin can guard is gone and only Tie'sha is waiting for me. “Lady Alyce, you know who's attacking?” Tie'sha says, the fog from her hangover seems to have mostly faded, but she's still slightly pale and doesn't look so hot. I want to slowly nurse her back to full power with thick, nutritious soup.

“Yeah, it's an annoying Elder Lich or something, maybe arch-lich... I think that's what Grom called it, can't remember. Speaking of Grom, I'm slightly worried about the hairy traitor so I think I will go look for him. He is an important underling who will serve me well in the future. I can't have him dying here already.” I say and walk past Tie'sha and out the door.

“My... my lady!” Tie'sha shouts, running up behind me. I turn to her. “What... what should I do...” She says with tears in her eyes. I pat her head. “It's going to be alright. I will take care of you. I won't let any ugly old skeleton touch you, so don't worry about a thing.” I say.

“Un.” Tie'sha says with a nod, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Follower, GET! You know what they say. The path to world domination begins with a single animal-eared maid.

My enthusiasm slowly boils over as I walk out of the Corneliáves mansion and see a whole lot of guards forming a perimeter around some nobles. It looks annoying, so I quickly grab Tie'sha and enter the shadows so they don't see us.

We make our way around the guards and I hear them shouting that they can't wait any longer. Then they slowly start to move. Ren-kun and his parents are there, so it looks like they will be fine.

Truthfully, when the chips are down all I really care about is Grom and Tie'sha, but I do hope Ren will be fine as well. It will be a shame for such a cute shota to die.

When we sneak out of the gate, my eyes widen because the scene looks like something out of a movie. Fire is everywhere and it looks like half the town is ablaze at this point. There is an odd darkness in the sky. It feels like death mana, so I quickly check my status. It seems I am on full power even though it's day time.

It must be that lich bastards doing, since he and his minions are undead too.

Anyway, I am a fire witch, so a few flames is nothing to me. Tie'sha however, is kind of afraid. I comfort her as I lead her along the still intact streets. It feels like I am diving through a great flaming labyrinth. Distant screams and metallic clashing sounds attest to the fact that battle is under way, but there aren't any civillians around. I am kind of impressed at the evacuation speed, I just hope that Grom hasn't been evacuated. That would ruin my search and rescue plan and it's rude to ruin a woman's plans, you know?

When I walk into the market from a side alley, I notice that there are skeletons with torches walking around like patrolling NPC's. There's also a squad of boners with weapons standing in formation. It is almost like a game encounter.

Behind me, Tie'sha whimpers quietly and shrinks back. “My... my lady, we should run.” She says quietly. I narrow my eyes at them, but they don't give me an especially strong impression.

“Tonight, we dine in hell!” I shout, raising my wand and firing off consecutive Conflagrates. The first line of skeletons in the formation explodes, and traces of my fire licks at the ground where they stood. The rattling of bones is deafening in my ears as the rest of them charge.

“Oops, Raven-chan, Zan, Elishmael come!” I shout, summoning my minions one after the other. With this, it's almost like I have a whole party with me. Tie'sha lets out a frightened shout when she sees my summons, she is especially afraid of Zan and Elishmael.

“My queen.” “My flame.” Zan and Elishmael say. I acknowledge them with a nod and send them off towards the rest of the skeletons. I signal raven-chan to go look for Grom and off she goes.

Come to think of it, I'm probably not helping the situation by setting fire to everything, so I switch to using darkbolts and take out the skeleton torchers one by one.

I walk forward, gently swinging my wand as masses of darkness flow forth from me, exploding the skeletons when it hits them. In front of me, Zan and Elishmael is completely dominating the skeleton squad with a powerful double-team. The skeletons are so weak... I guess the lich is just using a big army of weak troops with a few elites for the important tasks.

Though, considering my int stat, master summoner should buff my minions quite a bit aswell, since it gives them part of my int as a stat boost.

“Alyce... amazing...” Tie'sha says behind me. I look back and smile at her. “See, you don't have to worry about a thing. We will be fine, okay?” I say, keeping my tone gentle. Tie'sha nods. It seems like she's keeping it together for now.

When I'm nearly past the market, I get a signal from Raven-chan. Apparently, Grom is babysitting some newbie adventurers that got lost and they are on their own surrounded by fire and skeletons blocking their only way of escape. I'm sure Grom can take care of it, but I can't leave his fate to chance. I motion for Tie'sha to quicken her pace, running to where they are.

“Where are we going! Isn't that where the fighting is? I thought we were trying to escape.” Tie'sha shouts. She is not thinking clearly because of the hangover and the panic.

“Of course we're leaving, but first we have to go pick up Grom. I have to punish him for standing me up last night, even though he didn't really have to come, but still!” I say, but notice that I am drifting off. I was about to go on a tangent about how the butt is sacred and you shouldn't use it as a mere excuse to not come to the honeycake party.

Ahen.

This is a serious situation, as evidenced by the fire prickling my skin, the unnaturally dark sky and the flaming, collapsing buildings and screams in the distance. That's why Alyce, keep it together! Serious is serious. Yes.

Focused as a deadly hawk, I quickly approach Grom's position. Raven-chan has engaged the enemy as well, so they are holding out against the wave of skeletons for now. But their backs are against the wall... a burning wall, at that.

Rounding a corner, I see an entire street jam-packed with rattling boners. They're all streaming towards where Grom is, like a giant zombie horde. It couldn't be... the lich holds a grudge?! I definitely can't let him get his claws on Grom, so I lay into the skeletons and tell Zan and Elishmael to do the same.

There must be at least a hundred skeletons all packed into this tiny alley. Mein gott Grom, just what did you do to aggro so many boners! I explode about 5 of them with each of my darkbolts because they are so close together, but because there are so many of them, it is taking a long time and the city is burning down all around me. If I don't hurry, then Grom will be nothing but roasted meat when I reach him.

Although that sounds kind of delicious, I can't let it happen. I am saving him for later.

After decimating half of the skeletons and moving closer, I can hear shouting. Ah, loud cursing! What a nostalgic sound. Although it really hasn't been that long, but it is still a nice nostalgic sound for some reason.

I let out an eerie laugh and behind me Tie'sha shuffles nervously. Although the wand looks cool, I put it away in my belt and start dual-casting Darkbolts. When the skeletons try to spread out, I yank them together with telekinesis and explode them with darkbolts, shattering their bones all over the place. It is a very effective strategy and Tie'sha gasps at the destruction. Shivering, she clings to my back as I advance through the skeletons.

Then I see them. Grom is swinging a big half-broken axe mightily, and it looks like his beard is on fire. Behind him there's a bunch of kids huddled together, being protected by Raven-chan.

“Heey, you bastard!” I shout, and Grom looks over at me first with confusion, then a grin spreads on his face and he bellows out a huge laugh, redoubling his efforts with the axe and felling skeleton after skeleton with his furious swings. I don't really have to do anything now since most of them are dead, so I walk forward and explode the last few skeletons in my path. The boner line soon crumbles from double penetra- I mean pincer maneuver, and I come face to face with Grom, who is patting at his beard and cursing under his breath.

“Aren't ye a sight fer sore eyes!” He says. “Quick, we hafta get these kids out.” Grom says.

Looking over at them, I sigh. “Do we have to?” I ask, and Grom looks over at me with a stern expression. “Yes Alyce.” He says. Ah, that's right. It's a serious situation now, so I have to focus.

Grom motions for the kids to follow. Well, I say kids but they are scraggly looking teenagers wearing a mish-mash of adventurer gear. Probably newbies or trainees or something. Most of them appear to be around 13 or 14 years old.

“Tie'sha, meet Grom. Grom, Tie'sha.” I say, motioning from Grom to Tie'sha and back. Grom and the kids run up to me and we all start jogging back through the flaming streets, raven-chan guiding us like the expert GPS that she is.

“Ye really picked up a cutie there Alyce.” Grom says as we're jogging down a side-alley and coming up on a few skeleton torchers that look like they're slacking off. Perhaps they think they've already won the battle for the city, and maybe they have, at that.

“She will be a great minion.” I say as I fire off two darkbolts and explode the skeletons barring our path forward. I can see that Grom, Tie'sha and the kids are all sweating profusely and realize that it must be really hot for them here.

Unfortunately I can't do anything about it. I thought I was versatile with my spells, but there's a lot of convenient magic out there, huh. The world is wide...

Unlike this small, narrow, burning alley...

It's getting kind of claustrophobic in here. Flames are everywhere, Grom looks a bit drained. Tie'sha is staggering. It's like we're inside a great bonfire.

I realize that the entire alley in front of us is blazing and behind us aswell, there is fire.

Looking back, I see a red-haired boy supporting a black-haired girl.

Shit... it's a serious situation after all. I hoped it wouldn't be... Goddamn fucking lich! If you think you can roast my Grom and my Tie'sha, you're sorely mistaken!

I reach for my wand and point it at the blazing flames in front of us. “I'm a fire witch! I'll show you bastards what that means! It means I control fire! I am fire!” I shout, half-panicked because it's becoming hard to deny reality. This is no joke. Serious situations are scary.

Narrowing my eyes, I draw deeply on my remaining mana and focus on my fire manipulation. I will the flames to part, because I am a fire witch. Flames are mine too. They belong to me. This fire belongs to me. Yes, it does! It belongs to me. That's why, BEND.

Gritting my teeth, I force out even more of my mana and my head is getting kind of woozy and my vision is narrowing... but, before me, the fire is bending away from our path, flickering and weakening slightly. Just enough for us to pass through.

“Let's go quick...ly.” I say, my voice strained. I walk forward slowly, keeping my whole focus on fire manipulation and feeding it with my mana. The mana flows from me in thick, palpaple waves. At this rate I will run dry and faint, then the fire will eat my Grom and my Tie'sha and that is unacceptable.

It is simply unacceptable.

I don't know what to do!

For the first time since coming to this world, I feel my eyes growing wet with tears and I look back at my friends stuggling against the heat, sweltering and faltering and choking on the smoke.

“Please...” I say in a quiet voice as they walk slowly towards me.

“Eyes... blood.” Tie'sha says with a very hoarse voice. The edge of her maid-dress is on fire so I quickly put it out. She stumbles forward, but I won't let her fall. I use telekinesis to stabilize her and she manages to regain her balance somehow.

Swallowing a lump in my throat, I try to hide my shaking hands. I don't have enough mana for this... we're not out yet. We're too far away... I can't...

Suddenly, Grom throws me something and I react by grabbing it out of the air. It's a bottle.

Inside the bottle is blue liquid. Since there's no time to waste, I quickly pull the cork on the bottle and gulp it down. Potions...

I feel my mana swirling. It isn't much... but it'll have to do.

Steeling my resolve, I forge ahead through the flames, Grom carrying an unconscious kid and Tie'sha supporting another. The last two kids are supporting eachother and managing to advance aswell, but they are slow.

Just when I think that I'll run out of mana, I see the forest through a hole in a wall off in the distance.

With singleminded devotion, I walk towards that hole in the wall. The others look like they've lost hope, so they probably can't see this small hole in the wall.

But I see it, our hope.

After coming to this world, I've been joking around a lot, but even I have some things that I can't lose.

“Just... a little longer...” I say. My voice is so strained and I can barely see anything for the dark spots in my vision and the bloody tears that just had to come...

I blink my eyes. I'm somehow already at the hole In the wall, but I don't remember how I got there. “Hurry, get them through.” I say and step through the hole in the wall. Grom feeds the unconscious kids through the opening iin the wall and I receive them on the other side, laying them on the ground. Then I help Tie'sha through and lastly, there is Grom.

Then it hits me.

Grom is too big to fit through this hole in the wall.

On shaky legs, I wobble over to the hole in the wall and reach my hand through. “Come on, Grom. Come... on...” I say, my hand trembling.

He shakes his head, a sad and resigned expression on his face. “You go on ahead lass, I'll find another way out.” He says.

This bastard... he is smiling at me, slowly turning around.

My hand can't reach...

“NO!” I scream, and mana explodes from my body. “I WILL NOT ALLLOW IT!” I shout.

The hole in the wall starts crumbling, the edges falling away. Something dark is eating away at the hole. It's... pure death energy. Entropy, decay. Screaming, I throw my entire being into this one task, eating the wall.

Then everything goes black.