Fog covered the world like a suffocating blanket, thick and impenetrable. Although it was almost noon, the unnatural mist made it appear as though nighttime had descended upon the land, swallowing all light and hope. The fog itself seemed alive, writhing and pulsing with malevolent energy that made the very air feel heavy and oppressive.
Deep within this dark, gloomy shroud, the earth began to crack and split. From these jagged wounds in the ground, the arms of the dead clawed their way out with desperate, grasping fingers, as if they were tortured souls escaping the very depths of hell itself. Some emerged as pure skeletons, their bones bleached white and clicking together with each jerky movement. Others crawled forth as zombies, their flesh hanging in rotting tatters, eyes glowing with unholy light.
The variety of the undead was staggering and terrifying. Some had once been humans, their faces still bearing traces of the people they used to be. Others were dwarfs, their sturdy frames now twisted into mockeries of their former selves. Animals of all kinds—wolves, bears, great cats—pulled themselves from their earthen graves, their forms corrupted by death magic. Even dragons, those most majestic of creatures, rose as skeletal behemoths, their wing bones spread wide like tattered sails against the fog.
The list of undead creatures seemed endless, each one more horrifying than the last. Together, they formed a whole army of death, a vast sea of corruption that stretched as far as the eye could see through the mist of death.
"Elizabeth!" A handsome blonde-haired man in gleaming silver armor called out desperately while running forward through the chaos. His voice carried both urgency and unwavering faith, cutting through the moans and shrieks of the undead horde. At his cry, a beautiful woman who made others think she was an angel descended from the heavens raised her ornate staff high above her head.
Her lips moved in a small, practiced chant, words of power that seemed to make the very air shimmer. Suddenly, blinding holy light exploded off the staff in waves of pure radiance, causing the malevolent fog to flee as if burned by the divine energy. The weaker undead let out ear-piercing cries of agony as they were turned to dust, their forms dissolving into nothingness before the overwhelming purity of the light.
With the sun now able to shine upon this cursed land once more, one was finally able to see the hero party in all their glory, and it was no normal party by any stretch of the imagination. The sight would have been impossible to believe for anyone from either of the worlds these heroes originated from.
First were the five heroes summoned from a world known as Earth, brought into this realm years ago through ancient magic to stop the former demon lord. They had succeeded in killing that demon lord after a long and arduous campaign, but in its place had risen an even stronger demon lord who took his place with ruthless efficiency. This new threat was known as the Demon Lord, the Sovereign of Death—a being whose power dwarfed anything they had faced before.
In one way, coming from Earth, these five heroes would not be particularly eye-catching in their original world, appearing as ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. What was truly eye-catching, however, were the other members of the hero party standing alongside them. Naruto with his bright orange clothing and determined expression, Sasuke with his dark hair and intense gaze, Sakura with her pink hair and fierce resolve, Kakashi with his silver hair and masked face, and many others from the Naruto world.
For reasons that defied all logic and understanding, they too had been summoned into this world to help defeat the demon lord. The magic that brought them here was beyond anything previously attempted, born from sheer desperation. The demon lord's might was simply too overwhelming for any single world's heroes to face alone.
But the brilliant sunlight didn't simply reveal the assembled heroes and their impossible alliance. It also revealed the demon lord's castle in the distance, which stood tall and mighty up ahead like a monument to death itself. The castle was so grand and imposing, its black spires reaching toward the heavens like grasping claws, that the vast sea of undead before them was completely ignored by all who beheld it.
For standing at the entrance to that demon lord's castle, framed by its massive gates, stood the demon lord himself. He was stepping out to meet them with calm, light and relaxed steps, his very presence seeming to drain the warmth from the air around him. As soon as all eyes landed on the demon lord, all hearts came to a sudden, terrifying pause.
"…" The Demon Lord looked at the heroes before him for some time, his gaze sweeping across their ranks with an expression that was impossible to read. His silence was more terrifying than any roar or threat could have been. Finally, he let out a soft breath, the sound barely audible yet somehow carrying across the entire battlefield.
The aura of death gathered around him like a living thing, dark tendrils of energy hugging him as if trying to keep him warm in the chill of the grave. The very air around him seemed to wither and die, creating a circle of desolation that expanded outward with each passing moment.
As he raised his palm with deliberate slowness, the power of death gathered into his palm, swirling and condensing into something visible and terrible. He pointed it towards Elizabeth with casual precision, and with a single thought, a beam of death shot forward with unstoppable force. The beam killed everything in its path—not just living things, but the very concepts of existence itself. The air died, light itself perished, space crumbled, and time stuttered to a halt. This was the power of death, concentrated and turned into a weapon of absolute destruction.
But let's pause right here, at this climactic moment.
How could the story start at the final clash between the sides? Well, it could, and many stories do begin at their most dramatic point. But this wasn't that kind of story. Instead, this was a story about a group of six people who were summoned into a new world—a world of magic, wonder, and terror. A world populated by dwarves with their underground kingdoms, demons with their dark powers, angels with their divine light, and beings that called themselves 'gods' though their true nature remained mysterious.
The story truly started twelve years ago, in another dimension entirely—a dimension that held only one planet that had developed life. This planet was called Earth, and on this world, there was no magic or anything of the kind, at least not in any form that those on this planet would recognize or understand. But that revelation would come later in the story, when the truth about Earth's hidden nature would finally be revealed.
This planet was filled with technology and scientific marvels that would seem like magic to inhabitants of other worlds. The humans of Earth had learned to fly without the need for magic, soaring through the skies in metal contraptions powered by engines. They had learned to speak with people on the other end of the planet almost instantly without the need for ma"…" The Demon Lord looked at the heroes before him for some time, his gaze sweeping across their ranks with an expression that was impossible to read. His silence was more terrifying than any roar or threat could have been. Finally, he let out a soft breath, the sound barely audible yet somehow carrying across the entire battlefield.
The aura of death gathered around him like a living thing, dark tendrils of energy hugging him as if trying to keep him warm in the chill of the grave. The very air around him seemed to wither and die, creating a circle of desolation that expanded outward with each passing moment.
As he raised his palm with deliberate slowness, the power of death gathered into his palm, swirling and condensing into something visible and terrible. He pointed it towards Elizabeth with casual precision, and with a single thought, a beam of death shot forward with unstoppable force. The beam killed everything in its path—not just living things, but the very concepts of existence itself. The air died, light itself perished, space crumbled, and time stuttered to a halt. This was the power of death, concentrated and turned into a weapon of absolute destruction.
But let's pause right here, at this climactic moment.
How could the story start at the final clash between the sides? Well, it could, and many stories do begin at their most dramatic point. But this wasn't that kind of story. Instead, this was a story about a group of six people who were summoned into a new world—a world of magic, wonder, and terror. A world populated by dwarves with their underground kingdoms, demons with their dark powers, angels with their divine light, and beings that called themselves 'gods' though their true nature remained mysterious.
The story truly started twelve years ago, in another dimension entirely—a dimension that held only one planet that had developed life. This planet was called Earth, and on this world, there was no magic or anything of the kind, at least not in any form that those on this planet would recognize or understand. But that revelation would come later in the story, when the truth about Earth's hidden nature would finally be revealed.
This planet was filled with technology and scientific marvels that would seem like magic to inhabitants of other worlds. The humans of Earth had learned to fly without the need for magic, soaring through the skies in metal contraptions powered by engines. They had learned to speak with people on the other end of the planet almost instantly without the need for magic, their voices carried by invisible waves and electronic signals. They had accomplished many more seemingly impossible feats through the power of science and human ingenuity.
All of this advancement was, in its own way, magical. The people of this planet had learned to split atoms to create explosions capable of leveling entire cities, harnessing the fundamental forces of the universe itself. They had managed to create their own miniature suns, nuclear reactors that provided power to millions. And again, all of this was accomplished without what they would recognize as magic. Yet was that not magical in its own right? The ability to reshape reality through understanding and will?
"Are you doing your homework?" On a yellow school bus bouncing along a country road, a blonde-haired girl asked with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. She was addressing the blonde-haired young man sitting beside her, who was madly tapping away on his laptop with focused intensity, an annoyed expression crossing his face as he glared at the slow speed of his mobile hotspot connection.
"Yeah, and when the teacher gave us a whole month to finish it, I should have taken that as a major hint as to how incredibly hard and time-consuming it was going to be," the blonde-haired man said with a deeply depressed sigh, looking up from his screen to meet the eyes of his girlfriend, Elizabeth. She rolled her eyes at his complaint, though there was affection in the gesture.
"School is so stupid," he continued, his frustration evident in his voice. "Like, when would I ever need to know exactly how an atomic bomb works in real life? Or this entire section on the complex relationship between space and matter? It's not like I'm going to become a nuclear physicist or a quantum mechanics researcher."
Elizabeth shook her head with a knowing smile. "Those who say stuff like that are usually the ones doing poorly in school and looking for excuses. Meanwhile, you say it because you genuinely hate putting in effort and working hard, even though you're perfectly capable of understanding everything."
She knew her boyfriend Seth all too well. He was incredibly lazy by nature, but he had also been born gifted with natural intelligence and quick comprehension. The problem was that he didn't have the mindset or motivation to make full use of everything that had been given to him. For instance, while everyone else in their class needed days or even weeks to properly prepare for a test, studying diligently and reviewing material multiple times, Seth normally crammed everything into a few frantic hours right before the test, somehow managing to pull off decent grades despite his last-minute approach.
By all reasonable measures, he was genuinely smart and capable of much more than he achieved. He just consistently wasted his considerable potential on things like sleeping in, playing video games for hours on end, and watching anime late into the night. Elizabeth didn't particularly like that type of entertainment herself, but she wasn't the type of person to hate him for his interests or try to change his hobbies. On his last birthday, she had even bought him a PS5 gaming console, though she had ended up regretting that decision when she saw that it made him spend even more time at home than ever before, glued to his screen.
Elizabeth made a conscious choice not to help him with his homework. Why would she interfere when she barely understood the advanced material herself? She was confident that she would only slow him down or confuse him further with her own lack of comprehension. Instead, she turned her attention away from Seth's academic struggles and looked toward the front of the bus, where a bunch of other high school students were engaged in their own various activities—some chatting, some listening to music, others staring out the windows at the passing landscape.
As of this moment, they were all heading toward a field trip that had been organized as a reward. Their class had performed exceptionally well on a recent standardized test, scoring significantly above the other classes in their grade level. This field trip was their prize for academic achievement, a day away from the classroom to explore and learn in a different environment.
Elizabeth had initially felt reluctant about going on this trip. She had experienced a persistent bad feeling, an inexplicable sense that something unfortunate was going to happen. This intuitive warning had been nagging at her for days leading up to the departure. In the past, she had normally trusted her instincts completely, as they had always helped her avoid trouble and make good decisions. The few times she had ignored these feelings, she had invariably regretted it later.
She had only decided to go against her better judgment today because of Seth, who was enthusiastic about the trip and had been looking forward to it for weeks. She didn't want to disappoint him or miss out on spending time with him, even though every fiber of her being was telling her to stay home where it was safe.
"What's up, Elizabeth?" A different blonde-haired young man said as he moved to sit in the seat directly opposite from where Elizabeth and Seth were sitting. His name was Mark, and he didn't seem to care at all that she was clearly with her boyfriend. In fact, he appeared to deliberately ignore Seth's presence, as if the other young man didn't matter or pose any threat to his intentions. What was Seth going to do about him trying to steal his girl, anyway?
"Hey there, Mark," Seth said with a mischievous grin, looking up from his laptop to address the newcomer directly. "You don't need to try and hit on my girl just to get me jealous, you know. I'll go out with you if that's what you're really after." He threw Mark a charming, flirtatious smile that instantly caused Mark's face to flush with annoyance and embarrassment.
"Shut your gay ass up, nobody's worried about you," Mark said sharply, his voice carrying more heat than he had intended. The comeback sounded weak even to his own ears, and he knew it.
"What a shame," Seth replied with an exaggerated sigh, his tone perfectly innocent. "I really thought I felt a genuine connection between us. You should probably stop giving me those romantic signals then, because it's getting pretty confusing for me." With that, he calmly returned his attention to his laptop, effectively dismissing Mark as if he were of no importance whatsoever.
Mark glared at Seth for several long seconds, his jaw clenched with frustration. Then he looked at Elizabeth hopefully, searching her face for any sign of interest or encouragement. He glanced around the bus, acutely aware of how many of their classmates were now watching this exchange with barely concealed amusement. Seeing all the eyes on him, he sighed heavily, realizing that if he continued to pursue this confrontation, he would only succeed in embarrassing himself further in front of everyone.
Everyone in their class knew the complicated history between Mark and Elizabeth. They used to be best friends, practically inseparable throughout middle school and into their freshman year of high school. But that close friendship had been completely shattered when Seth had suddenly appeared in their lives and started dating Elizabeth. Mark had harbored a secret crush on Elizabeth for years, and maybe she had felt something similar for him, but neither of them had ever wanted to risk their precious friendship by crossing that line into romance.
The friendship had been gradually destroyed by Seth's arrival in their social circle. Elizabeth had slowly but surely become Seth's best friend instead, leaving Mark feeling abandoned and replaced. The transition had been painful to watch and even more painful to experience.
Before he went to sleep each night, the same tormenting thought always crossed Mark's mind: "What if?" What if he had taken that crucial step and asked Elizabeth out before Seth had appeared? What would his life have been like then? Would their romantic relationship have worked out long-term? Even if it hadn't succeeded, would they have been able to remain friends afterward, or would they have gone their separate ways entirely?
With a heart broken by loss and regret, and consumed by the feeling that he had lost his one true chance at love, Mark had thrown himself into physical fitness. He had hit the gym with desperate intensity, transforming his body and building up his confidence. He had tried to develop the courage and self-assurance that he wished he had possessed in the past, and he had made multiple attempts to win Elizabeth back through various means.
But despite all his efforts, everything he tried only seemed to push Elizabeth further away from him. The harder he tried to reclaim her attention and affection, the more distant she became. It was a cruel cycle that left him feeling more hopeless with each failed attempt.
Did he hate Seth for taking Elizabeth away from him? That was a genuinely complex question that Mark had wrestled with for months. The honest answer was that he didn't truly hate Seth as a person. His feelings were more accurately described as a strong dislike mixed with resentment, but not pure hatred. The person he hated most was actually himself, because he knew that if he had simply taken that crucial step long ago and been honest about his feelings, he and Elizabeth might still be close friends today, regardless of whether romance had worked out between them.
If Seth had mistreated Elizabeth in any way, Mark knew that he would have genuinely hated him with every fiber of his being. He would have confronted Seth directly, probably even beaten him senseless for hurting someone so precious. But the frustrating truth was that Seth was actually a pretty decent, laid-back guy. Mark could easily imagine himself becoming good friends with Seth under different circumstances, if not for the fact that Seth was dating the girl of his dreams.
"You alright?" one of Mark's friends asked with concern, noticing his friend's dejected expression. Mark nodded slightly in response, not trusting his voice to remain steady. He then turned to look at Elizabeth, who was watching him with a complex expression that seemed to hold both sympathy and regret. He sighed deeply upon seeing that look, knowing exactly what it meant, before turning his attention toward the front of the bus and deliberately ignoring his group of friends, who were now laughing at his romantic misfortune.
This was the unique dynamic of their friendship group, and some people might not understand it. But they were all so comfortable with each other that they regularly laughed at one another's failures and embarrassments. Mark was certain that this incident was something they would bring up repeatedly and tease him about for the following few days, maybe even weeks.
"Oh, I found another injured dog today," Elizabeth suddenly said to Seth, causing him to sigh deeply upon hearing her words. Her tone was slightly guilty, as if she knew she was about to be lectured.
"Another one?" Seth asked with a mixture of disbelief and exasperation. Elizabeth awkwardly scratched the back of her head in response, a nervous habit she had developed over the years.
Elizabeth was truly a kind soul who genuinely couldn't stand the sight of any injured or suffering animal. She regularly spent her free time helping others in need, whether they were human or animal. It was one of the things that had originally drawn Seth to her, though it also worried him constantly.
"I couldn't just ignore it when it was clearly in pain," she said with a small pout, her lower lip jutting out slightly in the way that usually made Seth's resolve crumble.
"I never said you should ignore suffering animals," Seth replied gently, his voice softening. He truly had no problem with her helping others in need. In fact, her compassionate nature was exactly what had made him fall in love with her in the first place. Her kindness had also inspired him to become a person of faith once he began to understand what her religion meant to her and how it shaped her worldview.
"But last time you were almost attacked by that aggressive animal you tried to help," Seth continued with obvious concern. "You're too nice for your own good, mainly because you haven't been properly exposed to the darker aspects of human nature or the real dangers that exist in the world." Seth could easily recall the many times he had felt compelled to stay close to her specifically to protect her from both dangerous situations and people who might take advantage of her trusting nature.
Elizabeth had been born into a wealthy household with protective parents, so she had been carefully sheltered from many of the harsh realities of life. The first time Seth had met her, she hadn't even understood the basic concept of budgeting or the value of money. It was thanks to Seth's patient guidance that, bit by bit, Elizabeth had begun to try to do more meaningful things with all of the money and privilege she had been born with.
"I have nothing to fear so long as God is on my side," Elizabeth declared with a proud puff of her chest, showing off just how fearless and confident she felt in her faith.
"God isn't a magical genie that's always there to instantly answer all your wishes and solve all your problems," Seth said while shutting his laptop, having finally finished his assignment and submitted it online. "You still need to be smart and use common sense."
"I know that," Elizabeth replied, remembering the important theological distinction she had momentarily forgotten in her enthusiasm. But still, she was determined not to let fear prevent her from doing good in this world and helping those who needed it.
Seth sat up straighter to look around the bus and check on their fellow passengers, but as he did so, he noticed something alarming through the front windshield. A deer was running out from the dense forest that lined both sides of the highway, and it was heading directly toward the road. The animal's movement was sudden and unpredictable, creating an immediate hazard.
The car driving in the lane next to their bus suddenly swerved hard to the left to avoid hitting the panicked deer. The bus driver, seeing the car's erratic movement and the deer still in the road, also steered sharply to the left to avoid both the other vehicle and the animal.
But they were currently crossing a bridge, and the sudden maneuver sent the bus crashing through the metal safety barriers. The vehicle plunged toward the forest far below, beginning a terrifying descent that would change everything.
Seth moved with lightning-fast reflexes, pulling Elizabeth down and using the bus seat as cover while simultaneously using his own body to shield her from whatever impact was coming. The bus flipped end over end as it fell, and a massive tree branch pierced through the bus windows like a spear, striking many students with devastating force.
Many of the students managed to avoid immediate death through luck or quick thinking, suffering only light injuries from the chaos. Others were not so fortunate, and the bus filled with screams of pain and terror.
Mark was thrown forward toward the school bus windshield with tremendous force. To his absolute horror, he saw a thick tree branch growing larger and larger in his field of vision as he hurtled toward it. Mark reacted as quickly as he could, throwing his arms up to shield his face from the incoming impact. He struck the tree branch hard, but fortunately it didn't pierce completely through his body. Instead, the impact knocked him sideways, causing his head to slam into the side of the school bus windshield. The safety glass spider-webbed and cut into his neck.
One student also had the same luck, a jagged tree branch had pierced straight through his chest, emerging from his back in a gruesome display. Another student hit the ceiling of the school bus with such force that the impact snapped his neck with an audible crack. Yet another student was thrown completely out of the bus during the crash, his body disappearing into the forest below. The impact with the ground killed him instantly.
And then there were Elizabeth and Seth. Seth had been incredibly quick to react, managing to flip himself over so that his back would hit the ceiling of the bus while he held Elizabeth protectively in his arms. Even as pain shot through his body from the initial impact, Seth didn't waste a single moment. He ignored his own injuries and tried desperately to find better cover for both of them.
But the situation was far too chaotic and unpredictable. With Elizabeth panicking and struggling within his arms, Seth found his pupils shrinking in absolute terror as he saw a sharp tree branch positioning itself directly in front of his eye.
The world seemed to slow down to an agonizing crawl. Everything in that crucial moment seemed to decelerate, with the only thing that mattered being the tree branch slowly but inevitably approaching his eyeball. Time stretched like taffy, each second feeling like an eternity of mounting dread.
He couldn't do anything to avoid the inevitable. His hands couldn't move fast enough to deflect the branch. He couldn't move his head quickly enough to dodge out of the way. In desperation, his brain began digging deep into his memories, frantically searching through years of experiences to try and recall anything that might help him in this moment. But his mental search found nothing useful, no technique or knowledge that could save him.
Seth's final coherent memory was of himself buying a Bible from a local bookstore and sitting down at home to read it carefully, trying to understand Elizabeth's faith and what it meant to her. In that final, crystalline moment before impact, Seth's mind instinctively turned toward prayer. He began to form words of desperate supplication in his mind, a prayer that would never be completed.
The tree branch pierced through his eyeball with a wet, sickening sound, continued through his brain, and emerged from the back of his head. Death was instantaneous.
"Seth!" Elizabeth cried out in absolute horror, her voice breaking with anguish and disbelief. The tree branch now held Seth's lifeless body in a grotesque embrace, and for several surreal moments, it supported his weight.
Even in death, Seth's body remained locked in its protective position around Elizabeth, his final act of love preventing her from falling. His arms stayed wrapped around her as if his very soul was refusing to let go. This lasted until the rear end of the bus came crashing down with tremendous force, finally breaking Seth's death grip and forcing him to release her.
Elizabeth found herself falling toward what was certain to be her death.