“Aaa…”

With the morning arriving, he sleepily walked the halls of the hotel, yawning and marching groggily towards the lobby in search of coffee.

It wasn’t everyday that he sought the spirit-lifting effects of caffeine, but after such an eventful day a few nights prior, he required it in order to properly function.

Man, my body is stiff…He thought, rubbing his shoulder.

Reaching the lobby, he made his way into the section of the hotel’s ground floor dedicated to a full-blown cafe, maintained well due to the high priority of coffee that most of Gangcheori believed in.

“Ah.”

If he was any more awake, he would’ve jumped, but he was only slightly surprised as he entered the cafe to find it occupied by somebody already: Ma-Ri.

Hardly registering his existence, the black-haired, icy-eyed girl looked up at him before returning her attention to the cup of coffee she sipped from.

“…Good morning, Ma-Ri,” he did his best to greet her through his half-asleep veil.

It took a minute to get a reply as the royally-dressed woman in an exuberant, white-and-black uniform with a flowing cape, and ornamental decorations of golden badges and material took a length sip.

“Morning,” Ma-Ri replied quietly.

I really don’t know how to approach her–! He thought.

Using the grounded coffee beans already prepared by the counter, he set some coffee into the machine, adding the grounded material in before pressing the “ON” button, allowing the coffee-creating machine to handle the rest of the leg work.

Waiting those few minutes, simply staring at the machine as it hummed and churned his water and beans into proper coffee, felt like an eternity as he blinked, hoping not to somehow manage to fall asleep while standing upright._.

“Aaa…”

He let out a stretched-out yawn again, scratching his head of curly, vermilion locks sleepily before finally retrieving his fresh cup of joe.

There were a dozen tables to choose from, but he definitely didn’t want to intrude on the girl’s space who was clearly somebody adverse to social interaction.

I can totally get that–yeah, he thought.

Sitting at a table a few over from Ma-Ri, four to her right, in fact, he settled down and began sleepily sipping the piping hot liquid.

“Yowch…!”

He let out a small noise as the burning liquid harshly met his tongue, causing him to set the cup down and let it properly cool off first.

Glancing over, he looked to see if he caught the girl’s attention, but it seemed no such luck came from his failure.

Mmm…she’s a tough one. Breaking the ice like her is like trying to one-punch a freakin’ glacier! He thought.

All he could do was carefully sip from his mug while trying not to scorch his poor tongue any further.

It was worse than being alone; sharing the cafe with the unsociable woman made him insecure, even quieting the sips he took as he was fearful of feeling that icy stare.

“You…”

–Unexpectedly, she called to him, making him have to check by looking towards her to make sure she was specifically referring to him as he forced himself to swallow the scorching hot coffee he had in his mouth.

“Me?” He pointed to himself.

“Err…”

“Jeong-Hui,” he laughed, realizing she had forgotten his name.

Did she not check the system?…Man, am I not worth even that much of an effort? He thought, slumping his shoulders.

“Sorry, err, Jeong-Hui then…” Ma-Ri spoke to him, brushing her silken locks behind her ear, “…How is it? Gangcheori, I mean.”

“Oh, well, I really like it,” he answered with a smile, holding his mug of coffee with both hands.

“Really? I’m glad, then,” Ma-Ri smiled softly.

He couldn’t help but find himself blushing just a tad, not expecting this from the girl he initially thought was as cold as the tundras of Russia.

“Everybody is really kind, honestly…they’ve treated me well,” he told with a warm smile, looking down at the cup of warm, dark liquid, “Even Korain, as much as he beats me mercilessly with that wooden training sword.”

“I’ve heard he can be like that…” Ma-Ri said quietly.

“Heard? You’ve never had to train with him?” He asked, looking at her.

Ma-Ri shook her head lightly, “…I was the one who trained him, actually.”

“Wha–?” He was taken aback, though not completely surprised.

Even from his first encounter with her, the finesse she had with her blade was unlike he had anything seen, let alone the strength she held as a high-leveled player.

“You trained that brute?!” He asked further, moving from his table and sitting at the same one she sat at.

It was a risky maneuver–he knew that, but he could tell she was the type of person not to take steps forward in building rapport with somebody else, instead, for once, he needed to be more proactive.

“…Just a few basic things, and some advanced maneuvers later on,” Ma-Ri explained to him, “Korain is incredibly gifted physically, but he initially lacked any elegance to the way he fought.”

“I see…warrior classes are like that, aren’t they?” He smiled melancholically.

“Mhm, they are,” she nodded with a slight smile.

It was a nice thing; an experience he didn’t think he’d find again in a world past its lifespan–such a simple thing, just sitting down and drinking coffee on a misty morning beside another.

“Jeong-Hui, I–”

“What is it?” He smiled.

For some reason, she stopped in the middle of her words, pausing as if sensing something that he couldn’t.

For some reason, her pale expression made him feel some sense of unknown worry as well as he looked at the dark-haired woman.

“Ma-Ri?–“

–Just then, a tremor shook the entirety of the building in a jarring fashion, violently producing a quake that caused glasses to shatter as he immediately stood up, nearly falling over.

It was so sudden that he didn’t understand what the force taking hold of his surroundings even was for a solid few seconds.

“What the hell–?!” He yelled out, though even his yell was muffled by the sudden tremor.

An earthquake?! He questioned.

“Jeong-Hui, get out of here!” Ma-Ri shouted at him, suddenly taking a commanding, hasted presence as she stood, beginning to race out of the cafe.

“Huh?! What about you?!” He yelled, following her out of the cafe.

It was still shaking, before finally stopping as things became eerily silent, though Ma-Ri still looked worried.

“…I’m going to make sure everybody in the hotel is alright. Check what’s going on outside for me, please?” Ma-Ri asked of him.

Of course, he couldn’t reject something asked of him by those crystalline, pale-blue eyes.

“Yeah,” he assured her with a smile, “You can count on me!”

“Thank you, Jeong-Hui,” Ma-Ri smiled with a slight sense of relief.

Going separate ways on this abrupt turn of events, he rushed through the lobby of the high-star hotel, making his way through the doors as he wasted no time calling forth his power, “Equip!”

His black uniform manifested over his body as he left the building, immediately looking up, and being stunned in doing so.

What his eyes met with above was something he couldn’t process, even as hard as he stared up at it.

A gaping hole sat in the abundant, ever-present clouds hanging in the sky, swirling around the open space that gave way to golden, heavenly light.

What descended from that radiance was something that made him freeze, with his blood running cold on his veins: it possessed an orb-like form as an eye, with an array of rings that spun around it, holding even more, constantly shifting eyes.

Though it was mainly made up of constantly moving eyes, there were many, swirling forms inhabiting it; text etched and erased on the golden platings of its physical form, flesh bore itself through the grooves of steel, diminishing just as quickly as it came.

A flood light birthed itself from its position, spiraling, compressing, and expanding–all at once, continuously.

What is…this? He questioned.

He didn’t even draw his daggers, only able to watch as the entity beyond human perception continued its descent from the Heavens.

The concrete of the sidewalk vibrated against the bottom of his tough boots as an ominous hum emitted from the orbular, eye-like creature; it was massive in size, causing a disturbance in the winds as it reached the ground floor.

Sprouting from the metallic entity of eyes, two, angelic wings stretched far, covering the width of the street as the abandoned vehicles were pushed away just by the new, warm winds emitting from its form.

He didn’t know whether he wanted to attack it with everything he had, or run in the opposite direction with his utmost speed, but he could do neither, only standing, frozen, with his mouth agape and his eyes wide.

What is this…? My body isn’t responding at all…Something about this–it’s making my mind swirl–I can’t explain it…! He thought.

It stopped just above the street, hovering as the pressure emanating from its inconceivable form cleared the immediate area around it.

He couldn’t help but continue staring at it, not blinking as his eyes began to dry and redden.

Staring at it so intently, all noise deafened being replaced by one thing, yet many: fast, multi-layered whispers flooding directly into his mind.

Just as he looked upon it, the main, colossal eye looked back at him with its prismatic, ever-shifting iris.

It was incomprehensible, yet the whispers invoked feelings that manifested in pseudo memories, surging through his mind visualizations of images he’d never seen, staring past the veil of human perception.

Simply put–it was maddening.