Alesha fell asleep waiting for Delilah, then the morning passed in a blur. After recounting what had happened the night before, she showed the marks on herself to a female professor assigned to document her claim, after which she was allowed to return to Delilah's room to recover. The student had ended up taking the morning off to stay with her.
Alesha didn't care to ask about how Flynn was doing, but Delilah assured her that he wouldn't be getting off scot-free. Apparently, the incident had revealed that he had an illegal hidden demonic bloodline, so the issue had become quite serious.
As for Seth, he had barely woken up in the morning, after sleeping nearly a whole day following the Banshee Queen's psychic attack. He had ended up passing the Final Exam because of "excellent skills in cooperating not just with his Summoned Demon but also with his colleagues." Teamwork was evidently quite important in this world.
Seth, Delilah, and Alesha had a subdued lunch together before sending her off. No one quite knew how to feel about one of their tight-knit group having made such a colossally bad decision, so the meal was a bit awkward.
In the end, Alesha stood outside a room like the one she'd been summoned to, face-to-face with Delilah. "Thanks for everything," she said quietly, the words holding a world of meaning. Delilah had done a lot for her. She'd helped her adjust to the school, been a fun friend to hang around in this fantasy world so far from home, and been exactly the person she needed after the traumatic events of the night before.
She didn't know what she'd have done without her.
"Yo very welcome!" Delilah said loudly, curly white hair bouncing as she put her hands on her hips. Sobering significantly, she added, "I'm very sorry things ended the way they did. If I'da known 'e was sucha scoundrel, I'da kicked 'im to the curb long ago!"
Alesha smiled sadly, knowing it wasn't Delilah's fault but regretting having met Flynn all the same. If the student had never introduced the two… No, such thoughts were useless. Playing the blame game now wouldn't help. If she was going to blame anyone it should be the culprit himself.
[And yourself, for accepting that earring,] Rogork unhelpfully added.
You stupid System, Alesha thought angrily at it. Hell no. I had no idea he was up to anything bad! How dare you try to get me to blame myself!
Unknown to Alesha, her reaction was exactly what the System had been aiming for; there was no point in letting the little Sprout self-destruct at this point. It still had a lot of Chaos to spread!
Alesha gave Delilah a big hug, then entered the Summoning Room. She was going home!
Seth exchanged a quick goodbye with her. Then, he started the ritual to open the route back.
A large, red summoning circle appeared on the floor, glyphs inscribing themselves along its outer edges. "Enter the circle and return home! Your contract is fulfilled. The magic power you are owed will flow into you during your journey back, and you will find yourself empowered upon your arrival! Return from whence you came, Demon, for your services are no longer required!"
Alesha entered the circle.
Everything turned white, all sounds disappeared, then the whiteness slowly retreated.
Eagerly, Alesha blinked away the lingering blindness. She expected to find herself in her room where she had left.
Yet that was not what she discovered.
Instead of a mattress on the floor, her dad's Hi-Comfort Gamer's Gel chair, desk space and closet, she found herself standing in a small flat area amongst a giant pile of rubble.
Rubble?! Why was there rubble?!
[HAHAHAHHAHAHHA! HAHA! Oh my word, really?! Hahahahaha! This is just, I can't! Hahahaha!]
Too dumbfounded to react to Rogork's blatant joy at the sight, Alesha turned around 360 degrees, observing the area. This… she was clearly standing in the remains of a destroyed skyscraper. But which skyscraper? Had she returned home, or been teleported to somewhere strange? Did they somehow send her to Faxton instead of Iritia?
Mind spinning, Alesha climbed around the demolished pieces of the building, searching for clues. There was evidence of Human Alliance technology everywhere. Gel chairs and beds, broken robots, broken remnants of sophisticated devices, even Hover Cars in places.
[This is too funny!! You got summoned to another world, and while you were gone, your own world got destroyed! Ahahhahhahah!]
"SHUT UP!" Alesha yelled, patience snapping. "Just because this building is broken doesn't mean my world was destroyed, okay?!"
In reality, she didn't know. She didn't know what happened to her world while she was gone, and she knew that. She had no idea if her family was alright, or if they had already died, or if some other terrible possibility had come to pass. There was a mountain of questions -- and no answers.
She breathed in and out, trying to calm herself. First, she'd scout around to see what she could gather from exploring the area. Maybe there were clues as to what had happened.
[Oh I've already figured it out,] Rogork bragged. [... Do ya wanna know?]
Suspicious, Alesha wondered how he could have possibly already figured out what happened here. "I'll bite. What's your take?"
[Hm… should I tell you… ooh! Let's do it the fun way.]
Great… the "fun" way. Alesha had a bad feeling about this.