Asher grumbled as bits of foliage prickled his skin. Staring above, a dense weave of dark green trees swayed gently under the breeze.
[Current Punishment Mission: Little Red Riding Hood (WAW)]
'Sophie?'
[Thirteen seconds.]
'System? What do you mean?'
[Wait.]
So he did. After thirteen seconds passed, another prompt appeared in his vision.
[Zero seconds. Synchronization 'Scorched Girl' is now re-available. Host is now able to freely use its Synchronization, or host it in a Shell of the Universe.]
Asher sat up, looking around him. All around him was dense forest. He couldn't even hear the chirps of birds or the clicks of insects.
The forest was completely silent.
"Peep!"
Startled, Asher's gaze snapped to the side. A small bird stared at him with beady, intelligent eyes.
Its body was pure white, except for an oval on its stomach, which feathers were dyed an ominous crimson.
Still, that single chirp wasn't enough to change the stifling silence that followed.
"Fragmentation!" Asher clutched his heart as his chest opened.
Soon enough, Sophie appeared with a pop.
She looked down at him, her face expressionless.
"You underestimated that man." Pulling him up, she stated the miscalculation that ended with his death.
"Yeah... Sorry."
Sophie ignored his apology, flicking his forehead, right on the spot where Dino smashed into his skull.
"Just because you have so many skills doesn't mean you can-"
[Apologies for the interruption.]
Asher flinched as Sophie's body melted into the floor, before she could finish her sentence. The moon quivered, pulsing red for an instant.
"W-What the hell?!"
[Due the will of one or more Abnormalities in this mission, you cannot use Fragmentation during this punishment mission. Synchronization can still be used, though no soul fusion will be applied.]
[Host gains one temporary ability.]
[No. 6 (WAW): Gain 200 Fortitude and 200 Insight for two minutes. This skill is usable twice, and only during the sixth punishment mission 'Little Red Riding Hood'.]
Asher sputtered at the sheer insanity of the skill's contents.
Two hundred Fortitude and Insight?!
"...Why did you give such a broken skill?"
[This mission has combat with one or more 'WAW' level abnormalities. As this is only your sixth punishment mission, this skill has been issued to shift difficulty out of the realm of impossibility.]
[As this mission contains one or more 'WAW' level abnormalities, there is no objective for completion.]
[Host will be contained here until a sufficient ending condition is met.]
The deluge of prompts suddenly shut off, leaving Asher in a dark forest, completely alone.
The sounds of chirping birds and rustling grass resurfaced once again, now that the bird from earlier was gone. He stared into the eyes of a deer, murmurring as it pranced away from him.
"O-Okay..." Asher took a careful step forward.
'Let's figure this out, step by step.'
He breathed in a breath of this foreign, new world.
Just like old times, there was no one by his side to help him.
Remembering the 'Little Red Riding Hood' fairy tale that Mei told him days ago, one thought rose in his mind.
"Just why is she a 'WAW' abnormality? I was given such a broken skill to do... what exactly?" He couldn't see any reason why this punishment mission would be more difficult than, say, the Fragment of the Universe, or even the Fairy Queen.
He scraped his mind for the details of the plot Mei told him.
"Wine, cake... Wolf, flowers... Fighting wolf? Grandmother... Save her? Huntsman...?"
Asher mumbled incomprehensibly to himself as he took another step forward, keeping his eyes vigilant.
Searching for a reason why the System gave 'Little Red Riding Hood' such a high rank.
...
In the sky above, the white bird that Asher saw earlier split open by an 'X' on its crimson stomach, revealing four outstretched tendrils of teeth and flesh.
It overlooked the forest.