I could hear faint mumblings from Beatrice's mouth. She was about to wake up.
Her body glowed like the summer sun—radiating not heat, but willpower.
She was the sun of willpower, a descendant of Apollo.
Her gentle eyes slowly opened.
"Where am I…?" she whispered.
"Good morning. You've been at my house since yesterday."
"Wait, what happened? I remember that weird eye thingy and why wa—"
She bombarded me with questions, and I answered them as honestly as I could—without revealing too much.
I didn't want to shock her.
"What do you mean by all this? Do you expect me to believe this bull crap?"
It would have been so much easier if she'd been awake when everything happened.
In the previous turns, she was. She had seen it all for herself. I never had to explain.
"So, you see, Beatrice—"
I decided to show her instead. A small demonstration of basic mana manipulation.
That seemed to work. Her eyes widened, and disbelief gave way to reluctant understanding.
"I see… it's hard to believe this is reality.
Do you think my parents will be okay? What about yours? Did you contact them?"
"Yeah, I'm sure they're fine. The government issued a lockdown, so the area around us is safe for now."
For now.
But soon it wouldn't be.
The mana around us had begun to fluctuate—vibrating, tearing apart.
I looked through the hole where my second-floor kitchen used to be.
The streets were empty, except for faint pink sparks flickering in the air.
Sparks symbolizing the end.
"Hey, Beatrice—do you think you can use your powers?"
Usually she mastered them quickly, but since she'd been unconscious this time, I wasn't sure.
"Umm, yeah, I think so. It's like… when I think of something fiery, I start to burn up.
And when I think about projecting that fire out—it just does something.
I still don't know how or what it is, though."
Good. She had a basic grasp of her powers. As for me—
"System, open skills."
—
[Skills]
[Ice: Ice Spear, Ice Boulder]
[Wind: Gust, ???]
No other skills registered yet.
—
I didn't have much to my name.
Only three usable skills, and one unknown one I might have used unconsciously.
I pulled out the ring I'd taken from the museum and slipped it on.
Next was the dagger.
Just holding it with intent to fight drained my body.
I tucked it into my coat's outer pocket for easier access.
When I turned back, Beatrice was sitting on the sofa, staring into nothing.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked.
"…Yeah. It's just a lot to process."
"I understand. It's a lot. It's almost like a game, huh?"
"Yeah, it is. But it's not like I get multiple retries, you know?
There are so many people out there drunk on their own power—
what if one of them attacks me? I don't think I could fight them."
"I'm sure you'll be safe. I'll make sure of it."
It would be one hell of an unfortunate person who ended up fighting Beatrice.
Her flames were among the hottest.
To fight her was to sign your own death sentence.
Just as we were speaking—
Notice to all individuals
[First Invasion Has Begun!]