I run back into the forest without thinking, heading toward where the dragon is currently looking directly at me. I am running even faster than before, even though the speed spell is no longer active. That voice... I know who it is.
"It just has to be her," I mutter quietly to myself. The dragon is about to attack me, but I jump onto its left wing. I grip the handles of my two daggers. It begins to flap its wings with a powerful stroke. I am thrown off the dragon and land hard on the ground, creating a small crater from the impact. The others stay back out of pure fear; they want to help me, but it is impossible. Their legs begin to tremble.
"Damn it, we have to help him," Milo says, a sense of self-hatred in his voice. He tries to move slowly, but nothing works. Kira clenches her fists.
"We must not give up!" she screams while trying to move. She manages to lift her left foot. The others look at her. A person with hardly any power is the only one who has the strength to speak up and move. The others take a short breath, while I recover super fast from the impact.
"MIN!!!!!!" This time the voice is even louder, which shows me that I am really close. Now I am certain who the voice belongs to. The dragon prepares for a new attack, its belly inflating wide. Sparks form in its mouth, roughly as big as I am. These sparks alone could roast an entire adult. I can't cast a barrier yet, as only nine minutes have passed and it takes ten minutes before I can use it again. I am about to dodge when walls of fire form to my left and right.
"MIN, I'm coming!" someone screams from the forest again. This time the voice sounds a bit hesitant and fearful. A simple water slash cuts through the wall of fire. I run through the gap in the wall while fire shoots along behind me. I barely make it out of the fire without injury. A girl approaches me.
"Hey Min, long time no see—except for when you were unconscious," the voice says softly, almost whispering in my ears.
"Who are you? You aren't Lisa at all. She... she was a beast-person, not a disgusting human," I say, trying to quickly get away from the girl.
"It's me, Lisa," she says with a disappointed voice. I look at her more closely. Her eyes are blue and her hair is violet. Everything fits, but her appearance... she is no longer a beast-person. What must have happened while we haven't seen each other?
"I'll explain everything later," she says with a tense voice while the dragon prepares to attack again. I smile with satisfaction and nod, but first I look at her status, which now only reads: Strength 3,670,450. Her strength is still very good, but I know she was once even stronger. By now, I am the stronger one. The dragon is about to attack again when Kira comes running from the side and punches the dragon in the face with her bare fist.
"Min, I'm helping you! The others are too weak to move. Funny that I'm the one saying it, the weakest in the group," she shouts over to me. Her gaze then falls directly on Lisa. Her cheeks puff up into a pout.
"Who is this girl? We haven't been together long and already you're cheating on me?" Kira approaches me with an angry and pouting face. She looks at Lisa with a killing glare. Lisa just starts to giggle.
"I'll explain it to you later, Kira," Lisa says, still giggling. The dragon now looks at us with a face radiating pure rage. The dragon roars loudly. Fire-red crystals form on its scales, starting to generate heat at fire-level. After a few seconds, the surroundings begin to glow and the trees start to burn.
"I'll handle it. I've seen something. Lisa, you go right. Kira, you cast a buff on my magic," I say with a determined voice. The two of them nod. Lisa runs to the right while Kira waits for my magic to amplify it. I run toward the dragon with a barrier around me shielding the heat, as my ultimate barrier still needs 30 seconds to be ready.
"Lisa, now!" I shout with a commanding voice. Lisa watches and begins to distract the dragon. I point my right hand forward and use my left hand as support beside it. Kira casts an amplification spell while my hand and everything in the vicinity freezes to ice.
"Even stronger!" I shout.
"Understood!" Kira replies. Everything in the surroundings, even near the others, is now encased in ice. The dragon's crystals start to melt the ice, whereby the crystals automatically reduce heat. After only ten seconds, the crystals are in the negative range, causing the dragon's body temperature to head in that direction as well. The dragon slowly falls to the ground.
"Now, Kira, beat him up a bit," I say with a relaxed voice. We can count ourselves lucky that it was a rather weak dragon. Kira runs toward the dragon, which tries to stand up, but fails since it is already like a block of ice. Kira starts punching the dragon, and more and more cracks appear in its scales. The first parts of the dragon already fall off and shatter. After only a few seconds, only a shattered dragon lies there. The others now arrive after the whole fight.
"Are you all okay?" Luna shouts to us.
"No, everyone's dead. Of course! Otherwise, the dragon would be dead, but only thanks to Lisa," I say. Luna looks at Lisa in confusion, who waves at her with a smile on her face.
"Finally I see you in person," Lisa says.
"I thought Lisa was a beast-person," Milo simply throws into the room.
"I'll explain everything to you," Lisa says with a nod. We all relax a bit while we walk out of the forest. We chat normally at first and decide that we won't talk about it until the next city, which we will reach this evening. After that, it's not much further, as the city is a highly modern mountain city. We come out of the forest, which is still a bit frozen, just like everything around the forest. We walk across the meadow, which after a few meters is nice, warm, and pleasant. I look around from time to time so that no one can rob or attack us. We arrive at a small hill where a house already stands.
"We should be there," I say. After a journey of over ten hours, we've taken five breaks, about one every two hours, and the sun is already setting.
"Let's discuss it tomorrow instead, I'm tired," Lisa says while we walk up the hill. We nod to her since we are all tired. Arriving on the hill, we see the entire city with elevators leading to the different levels of the city. There are ten elevators per level that can be used. There are four levels to the city. Through the hill, we are on the second level, where the entrance to the city is, because the first level is underground. The second is exactly on the ground and slightly elevated. The third level is about 30 meters above the ground and the fourth level about 100 meters above the ground. Then there is the fifth level, which is simply the castle of the largest city in Manduro—perhaps even in the world, but it is not the capital of Manduro. That would be too good to be true.
We go through the security check, where the guards check everything very strictly. We walk relaxed through the beautifully lit city. The elevators are made entirely of glass and the mechanisms are built so that they cannot be seen unless one uses anti-magic for invisibility. We go to one of these elevators and ride to the fourth level, which is said to be the most inhabited. The elevator travels upward for a few seconds. We arrive and immediately see the reason why it is so heavily populated here: there are amusement parks everywhere, at least that's what Milo called them.
"Um, Min, I know this is strange, but this country is built like Japan and has technology—at least that's what we call it where I'm from," Milo says very convincingly. He looks around over and over, but finds nothing he doesn't know from his world. We find a building with "Hotel" written in large, illuminated letters above it.
"What is 'Hotel' supposed to mean?" I mutter quietly to myself.
"It's like an inn," Milo explains with a smile on his face. He seems to feel comfortable; but that's understandable when you consider how much this reminds him of his home. We go into the hotel. The interior design is beautiful and lit. A man with a grim face stands at the reception. We go to the reception and get two rooms: a room for four for the girls and a double room for me and Milo. The receptionist gives us room keys, one to Luna and one to me. He points to the elevator.
"6th floor, room 602 and 603 are exactly opposite each other," the receptionist says with a rough but friendly voice. We nod gratefully and then go to the elevator, which offers a wonderful view of the entire fourth level and the sunset during the ride. It is a wonderful sight of the equally beautiful world stretching out here.
"If only the whole world were so beautiful and peaceful," I mutter quietly to myself. Milo taps me lightly on the back.
"Everything will be fine, Min. You will put this world in order," Kira says with full conviction and takes my hand, which feels warm and secure somehow. A strange feeling I haven't felt in a long time. A gentle but honest smile appears on my face. The elevator finally arrives at the sixth floor. We go straight to our apartments. Milo and I are just relaxing when there's a knock at our door. I go to the door, where Lisa is suddenly standing.
"Hey Min, I want to explain a few things to you," Lisa says in a quiet voice while looking down.
"What's wrong?"
"Well... can I come in for a moment? And Milo, even though it's your apartment, can you step out for a moment?" she asks with a slightly bashful voice. But why she is bashful, I can't quite understand. Milo nods and goes out while Lisa slowly enters. I sit on the bed and Lisa sits on the chair at the table. I lie down relaxed on the bed with my hands on the pillow and behind my head, my legs lightly crossed.
"Alright, tell me," I say to Lisa, who then immediately nods. But I only notice now that she has violet hair instead of brown. Maybe it was a habit to see her with violet, which is why I didn't properly realize it.
"Alright, I'll start, best from the very beginning. Back then when I died, I did die, but because you were the only one who still knew me, I didn't die completely. Because I have an ability called 'Forgotten Death,' which only lets me truly die when everyone alive has forgotten me. But you never forgot me, which is why I've been alive since then and because of that, I could always tell you everything. But it was my self in ten years that you were always talking to," she says with a few pauses in between.
"That means I'm the reason you're still alive?" I ask after her entire explanation. She just nods and then smiles at me gratefully. But that also means that with existence and life, I saved not only my life, but also Lisa's. I shouldn't think too much of myself for it, though. We just look at each other for a few seconds. Meanwhile, Milo comes back in.
"Alright, I'll be going then. Bye, sleep well you two," Lisa says with a satisfied smile. I've now received an explanation for everything, including why Lisa always knew everything exactly, since she must have heard everything I experienced from me at some point. And the dream back then... that must have been a coincidence then. Milo sits on the other bed and falls asleep instantly. We all fall asleep with the knowledge in the back of our minds that Lisa is something special.