Scarlet colors the horizon as far as the eye can see. Ash dances in the air like a miasma. The beating of wings echoes throughout the village followed by the deafening roars of a creature larger than a school bus. A man claded in black armor runs past the houses turned torches towards the beast flying overhead. He is followed by a woman with a violet mask on her face and rapier in hand, and an orange-haired mage, who almost trips over thin air.

Some distance away is a mage with his eyes closed is casting a spell, that sounds Greek to me. Behind him is a man cloaked in black with a patchwork teddy bear held close to his chest, he talks so fast that theirs no point in trying to understand him.

Another horrible sound comes reaping through the air. It’s so bad that the dragon cries in pain. The source of the sound so fowl is a petite woman strumming away on a lyre. Despite her music’s horrible sound, it gives her company an energy boost, which she is proud about.

This energy boost allows the black night to jump off the burning building and strike the dragon with his sword, followed by the masked warier. Enraged, the dragon aims his dragon fire at the orange mage! The closed-eyed man speeds up his spell in an attempt to counter it but was too late. Just as the fire was about to engulf him a figure dressed in gray puts themselves in between the mage and fire. With a scythe in hand, the gray figure cuts the dragon fire in half, saving both of them.

The dragon tries to fire at the two again, only to be shot by a man on the roof of the only building in the village that isn’t burning. The shot rips the dragon’s wings apart causing the beast to crash to the ground with a pain-filled roar. Hearing a quiet bell ring out over the dragon’s roar, the figure in gray picks up the mage and book it for shelter. The masked women and black knights do the same. The sniper just grins from ear to ear as he sees a giant magic circle appear over the village.

The closed-eyed mage calls out, “Now spirits of frost, welders of the endless winter. Bring forth endless sleep to those who oppose me, Cryo Eternity!”

A blinding light comes pouring down from the magic circle, freezing everything, it touches, even the fire. The warriors scramble to avoid being frozen running down the village’s main street, the figure in gray and the mage are lagging behind the black knight and the masked warrior, the light right on their tail. The Gray figure reveals small clear transparent wings and began to float above the ground, clearly struggling to carry the mage.

Running and flying as fast as they can they just barely make it out of the village before the whole thing is engulfed in ice. Outside the village a large group of people stands there, mouths open wide, as they gaze upon the village, they once called home, now a frozen wasteland.

The warriors all gather together behind the group of villagers. A black-haired man with bright gold eyes and a musket walks up to the group and said,

“Looks like all of you dumbasses made it out alive, great… Well, I guess that’s less paperwork I have to fill out.”

Everyone reacts to his words differently. The bard with the lyre starts to monologue about how their survival was all thanks to her. The dark-clocked mage is muttering something that no one could understand, might be a curse, we’ll find out later. The black knight, who is clearly angry, and the masked warrior, who is as expressive as a brick wall, say nothing at all, clearly trying to ignore the others, while the orange mage thanks the gray figure, to which the figure just awkwardly smiles and nods, it’s clear that there is more on their mind. All the while the mage with closed eyes is just standing behind the group happily watching the others as they quickly make a scene.

Now, here’s a question for you out there lucky enough to be reading this mess at home, instead of living it, which one of these clearly dysfunctional characters is me?

Could I be the woman behind the mask? How about the creepy guy in the black cloak? The antisocial black knight? Maybe I’m the jackass with the musket? How about the orange mage that was nothing but literal dead weight? Could I be the creepy stalker? Well, if you guessed any of these people, I’m sorry to say that you're incredibly wrong.

That leaves the tone death bard and the gray figure, and if you say the bard, I’ll have to hurt you. Meaning, if you hadn’t guessed it by now, I’m the gray figure, who by the way has a name, in fact, all of these dysfunctional characters have a name, but you’ll have to keep me company on this crazy tale to find out what they are,

But allowed me to introduce myself, my name is Rue Callisto and sadly, I’m one of two main characters in this story. The other is my little sister, who’ll meet a little later. If you’re here reading this, you either like isekai stories or had nothing better to do, like your homework you know is due tomorrow, but won’t do till ten minutes before class.

Ah, good old first-world problems, oh how I miss them. Up till a month ago, those kinds of problems were some of the few that I had to deal with, others being paying taxes, getting to work on time, and making sure my little sister could eat that day. You know common everyday teenager problems. If you’re a teen and don’t know what I’m talking about then consider yourself lucky.

Back then I never thought that my main worry would be saving my little sister from becoming a sacrifice to a god or trying to go a day without being eaten by a monster of some sort. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning.