"H-Huh?"
I woke up to the soft blue glow of a monitor's screen. The familiar sight of the Chronicles of Eos' title screen was on it.
"W-What? Where? What happened??" I mumbled to myself as I groggily got up from my chair.
I looked at my clock, it read 3:43 AM.
"Man, it's late,"
I felt a layer of saliva slip off my chin and some of my arm as I hurried to wipe it off with tissue paper. Looking at my arms under the dim light, I saw a lack of scars.
Am I back? Back in the real world?
I put my hand on my chest, my courage wavering as I quieted myself and listened hard to feel the one thing that would verify this reality.
"It's there, I'm back,"
The slow rhythm of my heart, I had nearly forgotten how it felt.
Running over to my closed blinds, I drew them open and witnessed the night sky.
The moon was up high, fully intact.
Everything is back, it was all just a--
"Hm, you're a lot lankier than I thought you'd be,"
"WuhAAHH!!" I yelped, suddenly hearing a girl's voice speak to me from behind.
Sitting on my bed was a girl dressed in a white slip-dress. She was thin and slender and her hair was as long as her body and colored in the same pixel-blue as my screen. Her skin looked translucent as I could vaguely see the color of my sheets and walls through her.
Her eyes were the color of an oil spill; a rainbow of mercury.
She was lounging lazily atop my bed, she had what looked like a magazine in her hand.
"Wow, they're quite large, I suppose this is your type?" She noted as she showed me a double-page spread of a nude big-breasted woman.
"H-Hey, don't look at that!" I demanded as I ran over and swiped it out of her hand.
"I found it under your bed, from what I know about your world, isn't that a little 'old-fashioned'?" She mocked as she sat up from her lounging into a cross-legged sit.
"That's none of your business-- who are you anyway!?" I asked.
"Me? Ouch, have you already forgotten the voice of your savior?"
"Savior? Wait--"
It felt like an icepick had skewered my temples with the pain I felt as a rush of memories flooded back into my mind.
I fell to my knees as the surge of information finally let up, had I been experiencing this kind of pain the entire time I've been in the game world? Luckily, I had been given that pain nullification to a certain extent.
"You, you were the one at the duel," I said as I fixed my eyes on her hands; they were the same ones that had lifted the staff.
She clapped her hands excitedly as she let out a small cheer.
"Yes! I'm glad that you've managed to remember. I wasn't so sure you would, especially with all of that Mana being funneled into your soul. The chances of 'scrambling' were a little too high for my liking, hehe" She said with a giggle.
"What do you mean by 'scrambling'? Wait, y'know what, never mind, I don't want to know. Just tell me, what's going on? I'm assuming now that all of that wasn't just a fever dream." I asked as I dragged my chair over to meet her at the bedside.
She fixed one of her thin arms onto her knee and rested her head on her palm. With her face so close to me now, I could see that she was beautiful. But, this beauty felt almost... artificial, as if she was made to be this beautiful. It was an uncanny feeling.
Her mercury eyes studied my face, once she looked satisfied with what she saw, she began to speak again.
"No, unfortunately, this is all not just a dream," She paused with a sigh, "You're currently still in there, on Eos," She glanced over to the computer screen.
"How is that possible? How did I get transported into that? And why am I there if I'm here right now?" I asked.
"It's possible because the magic of that world combined with my recall were used as a catalyst to summon you into it," She raised a finger up to stop me from asking another question, "To explain how magic and technology work together is something even beyond me, you would have to delve into the roots of that world to understand that. And even then, I couldn't promise your sanity if you did,"
"So what you're saying, is that my computer had acted as a kind of 'portal'?"
"In a way yes, due to my nature however, I would liken it to more of an 'entry-way', much like how data is transferred in your world; you were a packet in that stream of information,"
"And to explain why you're here and there at the same time is because you're not here. You're currently in the depths of your mind, this is your subconscious state actively protecting itself to keep you from going mad from all of that Mana,"
"I'm in my mind?" I looked back at my hands, they were exactly as how I remembered them; normal and scarless.
I felt a pang of anxiety hit me as I thought of the worst; what if I was stuck in here forever?
"H-How do I go back?" I asked her, placing my hands on her small shoulders.
She didn't mind my touch, as I felt her sheer skin, it had the consistency of silicon; a smooth, supple synthetic feel.
"How odd, why would you want to go back?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"As I said, you're currently here and there. This is your mind, this is a fabrication transfixed by your inner self and by the unimaginable influx of mana that you had devoured."
She placed her hands on my face, I felt the cool touch of her palms caress my cheeks. Her mercury eyes peered deeply into mine.
"You could live your lifetime here, back in the 'real world' if you wanted to." She cooed softly.
"I don't understand, this isn't the real world." I retorted.
"Consciousness comes in all forms, much like a prism." She let go of my face as she slunk back onto my bed.
"A prismatic flow, a refraction of what we consider as 'real'."
She stood up on my bed and stretched, her small slip dress was edging up her thighs and near her crotch.
"To put it simply, it doesn't matter if this is fabricated. If it feels like the real thing, then it's the real thing,"
As she suddenly leaped off from my bed, her dress hiked up and revealed her bottom half. I caught a glimpse of something amazing.
"Here, see for yourself," She said as she opened the door out from the apartment and into the complex.
"W-Wait what're you doing!--" I hurriedly scrambled over to the opened door, but as I got to it, I saw the rest of the outside.
The night air was warm as it was the middle half of summer. I could feel the air's embrace on my skin, and small goosebumps formed on my arms from the caressing heat. I could smell the faint vinegar used to clean the windows on mine and my neighboring units, it stung my nose. And far off onto the street, I could see people walking: mothers with their strollers, children playing with their friends, the elderly jogging. They were all there, completely unaware of my line of sight as they went about, disappearing behind other buildings; and away from my consciousness.
It all felt real; all of it.
As I stepped out onto the hallway and leaned myself up against the ledge, I saw that the girl hadn't come out herself. She was lingering at the doorway, a melancholy in her eyes.
"What's the matter, is it too hot for you?" I asked her, but she shook her head.
"This is your reality, for someone like me, I'm like a leftover dud; my time here is fleeting." She explained.
"I can make it easy for you, I can wipe your memories and let you live out this. It'll feel identical, nothing will be out of place. But, once you do, there is no coming back; I'll have to return myself," She crossed her arms as she brushed one of the synthetic strands of hair out of her face. I noticed now that her hair wasn't blue, but rather colorless, as it glowed orange from the reflection of the light from the hallway.
"There's no coming back, huh," I mumbled to myself.
I took out my phone, as I knew it'd be in my front pocket.
I checked my messages.
"Nothing, I guess not even in this reality that'd change," I bitterly said as my inbox was empty.
After Mom and Dad had passed away, there was no one else around to care about.
"And what if, I want to go back?" I asked her.
She frowned as she took a step back into the room.
"If you want to go back, something like this, it will never happen ever again. Devouring that spell put a catastrophic strain on your core, and as such, you've been changed,"
"Changed how?" I took a step forward, nearing the doorway.
"You had been awoken with premature prerogatives, but this spell had acted as your 'reboot'. It means that if you were to go back, you'll be given the tools that you were meant to be given in the first place," She explained.
"But as such, this inner-self will be replaced by the change you've been given,"
"No return," She said.
"No return," I repeated after her.
I looked back at the cityscape behind me. I could see the distant skyscrapers that tore into the sky, the little lights that lit up their windows; hundreds of thousands of people living their distinct present. If I were to leave, this existence would be erased.
"I can see now why, why you're frowning," I choked out to her.
"Choose, follow me through this door, or stay out here," She said as she put on a neutral face; I couldn't make out what she was thinking anymore.
To either live in this world or to fall back in that other.
Here, I was nobody. I had a dull nine-to-five, I had no friends, and all I did was play games all day until I'd sleep and repeat the same the very next day.
But on Eos...
Rayji, Tesera, Ashari, Ratusk, Stergos, and...
Flaur.
These people of the future, of the world that I had failed to save nine hundred and ninety-nine times in the past.
They were a result of my failure, my failure to save the Ars Goetia--
to save the Demon Queen.
Two fabricated realities, two refractions of the same prism.
I had to choose between two worlds. But, in my heart, and the lack of one I had in Eos, I knew which was the true choice.
I felt the warmth of the night air leave me as I stepped back into my apartment and shut the door behind me.
"What's your name anyway? I can't just keep calling you my Savior," I asked the girl as she led me back to the monitor.
"Me? Mm, and here I thought it was obvious," She giggled.
"I'm stupid, just tell me or I'll never figure it out," I gave a playful beg as I sat down in my chair.
"Mmmm, well just because you're so self-aware. And thankfully those two jerks aren't here and won't give me trouble for me saying it out loud,"
"Two jerks?" I asked.
"Yeah, they'll come to greet you at some point too, now that you've made this much of a ruckus. Just make sure to not get swayed by their 'assets'. They're very persuasive, more so now that I know that's your type," She said as she looked down at her petite chest with a small frown.
"Assets? W-What?"
"F-Forget it! My name is Lunarsa, Goddess of the Fractured Moon!" She declared as she pressed the enter button on my keyboard; starting the game anew as I felt my entire being be compressed into nothingness.
"We'll meet again, someday, Ignis~"