Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As of right now, the only characters I own are Nova and Sadie and the idea of Summoner's Reality. Everyone else belongs to Com2uS.

Chapter 1

The Daily Grind

7:32 A.M.

My phone buzzed in my pocket as I ran, and I cursed as my sweat-soaked hands nearly dropped it onto the pavement. The screen unlocked, revealing the Midnight Beach Concert wallpaper art. Layered on top of Illianna's arrogant smirk and Galleon's devilish grin was a notification for Summoner's Reality.

"A Giant's Keep dungeon has been detected!"

Alright, it was time to get to work. I opened up the app, letting everything load up before fumbling around and trying to get to the map. The dungeon was roughly around half a mile away from where I was now. By the looks of it, I would have to take a detour just to get close enough to send one of my teams out, and I really didn't have that luxury this morning.

I never stopped running; only slowing down for just a moment to figure out a strategy for this. The bus stop was up ahead, and hopefully at some point the bus would get close enough for me to send out my GB10 team. I made a mental calculation; trying to remember the bus route I took every day. Oh, damn it, why didn't I pay attention beforehand?

A message pinged in Facebook. Must be my guild's group chat, I thought to myself. Sure enough, the message had a mention of my username. Finally, my shoes clopped to a halt in front of the bus stop. My legs were sore, and I could still feel the constant movement of running in my muscles.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): @NovaStorm you see the dungeon, right?"

Oh, thank god for Sadie. I typed my message as the bright yellow school bus screeched and slid the doors open.

"NovaStorm (Nova): yeah. Too far from it, though. Can you send something out there for me?"

The response was instant.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): on it. GB10, right?"
"NovaStorm (Nova): gb10. Tell me what you get when you clear it, okay?"

I didn't know what I would do without my best friend. She was the one who introduced me to Summoner's War over a year ago; at first I thought it was just another title in the line of unrewarding money-grab gacha games that was flooding the market like Dungeon Hunter Champions or Destiny 6. Now it was clear which one of us was more addicted to the game. Hint: It wasn't Sadie.

I was only drawn even further in when the tie-in augmented reality game Summoner's Reality was announced and eventually released almost one year ago. It blended in flawlessly with the original game, and soon enough the population of Summoner's Reality was almost the same as Summoner's War. It was optional to play Summoner's Reality (and you could have a separate account on both games), but most people flocked to download it.

Of course, I was one of those people.

Finally, we had a Summoner's War that was story-based and scratched the itches we all had. The long-awaited Dimensional Hole was here at last; blurring the line between our reality and the world of Mystica. I exited out of SR and opened up Summoner's War. The daily reward was in my inbox; a Light and Dark scroll.

The day was May the 24th, 2020.

Lightning flashed across my screen. My heart pounded in my ribcage as the lightning cleared away, revealing...

Oh my god.

"FRIGATE!!" I didn't realize I was screaming out loud until it was too late. It felt like everyone in the bus turned to look at me, sitting there in the back nearly crying tears of joy at my phone. There goes Nova again, everyone was probably thinking, being a friggin' weirdo. She must be sick in the head or something.

I didn't care, though. My army of Pirate Captains was complete! I took a screenshot of my Summoning Circle and sent it to my Facebook group chat; accompanied by what can only be described as a metric ton's worth of happy and excited emojis. Eventually everyone in the real world sighed and went back to what they had been doing moments before.

"NovaStorm (Nova): THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE"

As if on cue, the group chat exploded in "gz"s and "screw you"s. The local salty one of the group even sent a "totally f2p btw /s" I would be the first to admit that I was pretty lucky with my LnD lightning; watching the green bolts skitter and jump after opening a Light and Dark scroll was something I was used to seeing, but it still sent my heart rate up every time it happened. I had a pretty nice collection of LnD nat4s in my inbox, ranging from Figaro to Hyanes. Granted, I had never gotten a nat5 from the scrolls before, but I didn't really care; I would be happy with what I got.

I locked my new Pirate Captain as soon as I could, taking my best Swift set off of my Woosa and instead placing it on Frigate. Ooh, buddy, was I excited. I had heard many good things about Frigate; how he was a beast in Lushen comps and that he was surprisingly good for the Trial of Ascension. I looked at my ToAH team: Baretta, Shaina, Maruna, my water Homunculus TheRiftBeasts, and Mav. I swapped Mav for Frigate in one of my placement decks for when I eventually got him built and awakened. Lyrith would melt away on auto at this point.

7:49 A.M.

The bus screeched to a halt, and without looking up from the screen, I exited and started walking. In the real world, I was all but ignored, but that was okay with me. I didn't really need anyone besides Sadie and my pride and joy: the Lushens. Three hits on all enemies that ignored their defense was too good to not build three (now four) copies of Lushen.

I realized that Sadie had since left a message on the group chat. I opened it up to be greeted a picture of her sweet reward from the SR dungeon–a Legendary Despair rune! The substats were perfect for an AoE attacker; perhaps one of her trio of Occult Girls? I was jealous of her; she couldn't go wrong with getting rolls in any of those substats. If only the innate Crit DMG% had been swapped with the HP% substat, though...

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): SCORE, BABY"
"NovaStorm (Nova): rica or charlotte rune?"

The response was instant.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): charl if I roll speed and attack"
"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): rica if I get more HP"
"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): gonna keep anavel on vio, love her too much on it"

At this point, I exited out of my apps and slid my phone into my pocket. School would be...difficult to get through as this point. My mind swirled with thoughts about Frigate, how was I going to rune Woosa now, and many other things. Next time a GB10 run popped up in Reality, I was going to make sure I cleared that one, no matter how far away; not after Sadie's sweet rewards. Hmmm, but what about my Woosa? Maybe now would be a good time to finally switch him to Violent runes...

I caught myself mostly zoning in and out of class, doodling character designs and transmog ideas in my notebook. Maybe Beach Boy Archangels would be pretty cute; Com2uS didn't really make transmogs for the male characters, so I supposed the best way to fulfill my fantasies of having cute transmogs was to make it myself.

The bell rang, and class was over. I slapped my notebook shut and stuffed it into my backpack. I kept thinking about Frigate and Woosa, over and over again... I took out my phone and loaded up Summoner's Reality again, just for a minute, I missed my monsters more than anything. I knew that they were all just automatically generated with pre-decided dialogue options, but I was lonely. I selected my Woosa and hit "Chat."

"Woosa: Welcome back, Summoner." Woosa smiled at me as the textbook popped up underneath his chest. In this part of the game, the monsters were drawn in a cute, anime-style 2D art, and every last one of them was extremely expressive. I couldn't help but wonder how long it took Com2uS to draw all these.

I was given two choices for my response.

Hello.
I missed you.

I selected the latter option. I could've sworn Woosa's smile widened at this.

"Woosa: I missed you, too."

I clicked the screen off again and slid my phone into my pocket. When lunch break rolled around, I'd go on a quick patrol around the school for any dungeons or stray monsters to fight. That was something new Com2uS had recently put into Summoner's Reality –sometimes, monsters would randomly show up and challenge you to battle.

If you won against them, you would have a 50% chance to summon them to your island; otherwise, you'd end up with a sweet amount of crystals to make it worth your while. I hadn't found any nat5 monsters yet, but there were rumors in my guild chat that the crystal amount for winning against them was somewhere in the 300 to 600 range.

No one had found any LnD nat5s to battle against yet, and some were saying that they were event-only monsters. Others still claimed that Com2uS would never give away an LnD nat5 so easily like that. Me, personally, I believed that they were just so rare that finding one to battle was an achievement in itself.

Who would be the first to find an LnD nat5?

2:00 P.M.

Keeping my eyes open during the rest of school was almost impossible. I had to get back home to work on my Frigate. Sorry, Teshar, but Frigate took priority as six-star material now. Finally, finally, my last period ended. I could go home now. I tried to remember the distance between school and my home. Maybe if it was short enough, I could walk and be on the lookout for dungeons or monsters.

No, no, that was way too far. New plan: when I arrived at the bus stop closest to home, I would diverge from my path a little and look around for dungeons. I shot a text to Mom that I would be coming home a bit late today. "On a dungeon hunt," I clarified. She responded a few minutes later, reminding me to be home by 3. With that, I pulled up the group chat.

"NovaStorm (Nova): going on a dungeon hunt, wish me luck"

Our guild's leader, GanymedePls, sent a message at this point.

"GanymedePls (Ganymede): @NovaStorm don't forget to hit today in GW"
"GanymedePls (Ganymede): farming guild, v easy wins"
"NovaStorm (Nova): I won't, I won't"

No one knew GanymedePls's real name; all we knew was that he really wanted that wind Fairy King. Honestly, I didn't blame him. Sadie sent a photo of her Charlotte's stats, along with a picture of the upgraded rune – a quad roll into attack.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): the best gurl is happy"
"NovaStorm (Nova): gz"
"GanymedePls (Ganymede): gz"
"FlashyWarrior (Michael): gratz"

I played around with my Frigate for a while before the bus came, awakening him and dumping some Angelmon into him. Did I have enough material to at least five-star him? I had just opened up my Monster Storage when the bus came. I wondered what team I should try next for the Trials of Baleygr in Summoner's Reality.

Halfway back home, Summoner's Reality sent a notification. I rolled my notification bar down to check it out.

"A monster willing to fight has been detected!"

I opened up the map. The monster was a few miles away, close to my bus stop. I had half an hour before it disappeared or until someone else caught it, so I was going to have to hurry. Ooh, maybe I could try out the new Vampire set on my fourth Lushen. I wondered how much damage he did per card; I didn't have the chance to try him out in Aiden Forest last night.

The bus stopped, and I exited and started walking. Who was the monster this time? Hopefully it was a Delphoi; I'd been trying to summon one for what felt like ages now. As good as she was, Mihyang just didn't work as my only Rift of Worlds cleanser, and Book 6 of Summoner's Reality's campaign was insanely difficult – bringing a cleanser/immunity buffer was heavily advised. Even those with Guardian-tier runes had difficulties completing it; I think the percentage of the player-base who had finished it was around 25%. I needed that Delphoi to go with Woosa.

I turned the corner and started heading to where that monster supposedly was. Oh, please be a Delphoi –

My heart skipped a beat. There, standing on the other side of the road facing me, was a Lightning Emperor. His long, white hair flowed over his crown, armor gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. His expression was patient, almost blank, and in one hand a glowing purple ball of energy floated. Herteit, the dark Lightning Emperor awaited my challenge.

I'm the first to find a light or dark nat5 in the wild.

My phone nearly clattered out of my hands at the sight of that beautiful, beautiful emperor. No way. There was no way Herteit was here, waiting to be mine. My Herteit. "NovaStorm just got Lightning Emperor." That had a nice ring to it. Of all the monsters to be my first LnD nat5, Herteit was perhaps the best any girl could ask for.

Eventually I moved to take a screenshot, just to prove to myself that this wasn't a hallucination, or perhaps I was seeing his element wrong. Right here, was Herteit. I started to run towards him, as fast as I could. He would be mine; no one else's but mine. I was going to make headlines in the SW community: Meet Nora "NovaStorm" Davis – The Girl Who Caught a Herteit.

The day everything changed was May the 24th, 2020.

I could have sworn Herteit smiled, and a textbox popped up under him. Usually, monsters said something like "I challenge you against your best monster, Summoner!" whenever this happened. This time, however, Herteit uttered two strangely ominous words.

"Herteit: Goodbye, Nova."

Herteit's farewell was the last thing I saw before the truck going down the road barreled into me.

Chapter Text

As of right now, the only characters I own are Nova and Sadie and the idea of Summoner's Reality. Everyone else belongs to Com2uS.

Chapter 2

Baleygr

I'm going to be honest; I don't remember much of the next few months after the accident. Some driver of a pickup truck was turning a blind corner and didn't see the little redhead teen (me) staring at her phone until it was too late and wasn't able to hit the brakes in time, and the result of it was a girl with shattered ribs and a bunch of other not ideal injuries.

Apparently, the first thing I said when I woke up from my coma was "Herteit." Figures.

My phone screen was shattered in the accident, but my SD card survived. Even then, I didn't get the screenshot of Herteit, so there was no way to prove it really happened.

A bunch of parents were up in arms about the dangers of Summoner's Reality; after all, if a distracted teen could wander to the streets in search of "monsters," what makes you think little kids who didn't know any better wouldn't do the same thing? It was only a matter of time until Com2uS had the Pokémon GO controversy happen to their game, and here it was; poor ol' Nora.

My own home was in frenzy. My parents' marriage, which was already rocky, was strained to the point of nearly breaking; my dad thought my mom was to blame for this for giving me the okay to wander off and therefore get myself hit. Mom said that no one knew that I would get into a terrible accident like this. It got so bad that when I eventually woke up they had been in the process of separation. Great news to wake up to, isn't it? "Hey, Nova, you're awake, your father's moving out and we're separating, woo-hoo!"

The day I got to come home was July the 20th, 2020.

The first chance I got, I pulled up my group chat and typed in a message. Everything felt like a whirlwind of events, one after another, surrounded by nurses and my immediate and extended family; so I think being able to sit down on my bed and talk to my guild chat was really the first time I had a moment to myself. I was just surprised they hadn't kicked me out yet for inactivity.

"NovaStorm (Nova): hey, just got back from the hospital."
"NovaStorm (Nova): sorry I never got to hit in GW, @GanymedePls"

I wasn't saying that just to crack a joke; I really did feel bad I straight-up abandoned them like that, even if I was...well, you know, comatose.

"GanymedePls (Ganymede): no worries. Welcome back. Don't push yourself."

The chat pretty much blew up at this point; asking what happened, what monster did I find, did I at least manage to catch it, was I okay. I answered them all the best I could, deciding last-minute that the monster was a Delphoi, like how I had wished it had been. There was no way that they would believe I was about to fight a Herteit, and he actually said to me – Nova – a goodbye right before the accident. Truth be told, I wasn't sure if I had imagined it myself. The situation was far too strange to believe, and the proof I tried to get of the event was gone.

A message pinged out of the group chat. I exited out of the chat, and realized it was from Sadie.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): NOVA"
"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): OH MY GOD NOVA WHAT HAPPENED"

She started sending lines upon lines of gibberish and keyboard mashing. I told her what happened; I was going home from school when a monster was detected. After I went to get that monster, I was so distracted that I didn't realize that a truck was coming, and by the time I notice, it was too late and I went out cold.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): WHY WOULD YOU RISK YOURSELF FOR A MONSTER YOU COULD'VE SUMMONED LATER"
"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): NOT TO VICTIM BLAME BUT I'VE BEEN SO WORRIED EVER SINCE THE CRASH"

I started to type up a defense, but paused. Did I really want to tell Sadie what I had seen? Sure, she was my best and only friend, but... would she believe me? Did I even believe my own memory? Nah, it was best to play it safe. I changed the subject from the cause of my accident.

"NovaStorm (Nova): aaaaaanyway"
"NovaStorm (Nova): have there been any notable changes in sw since my break?"

I chuckled softly at the thought of calling it a "break," like I had voluntarily decided I was too dang addicted and needed to stop playing forever – at least, until Monday morning rolled around and I needed to collect my weekly Devilmon. Sadie started typing, and I braced myself for a huge wall of text.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): buncha warnings about not playing while distracted now in SR"
"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): a balance patch"
"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): you missed a Luer and Scarlett HoH"

In other words, there was nothing really to write home about since my coma. I did feel mildly upset about missing Scarlett, though. She seemed like an interesting toy to play with. I asked for a link to the balance patch. Another buff to Geldnir (he still sucked), damage percentages increased for some random nat3 family, a buff to Taor, which ended up indirectly nerfing Alicia and Poseidon again – the poor Sea Emperor still was underwhelming even after being changed to an ATK type – and a complete rework of Zeratu.

Next up was downloading the latest version of Summoner's War and Summoner's Reality.

When I started coming to in the hospital, my mom gave me a visit. I remembered how she hugged me tight, sobbed that I was awake; meanwhile I had just been bracing myself for the inevitable "how could you be so distracted, that's it, no more Summoner's War for you!!" It never came, though.

I loaded up Summoner's Reality first. Just as Sadie had said, now there were warnings about playing Summoner's Reality while distracted that you had to click "OK" on before getting into the game itself. It felt weird to know that I was the reason that these warnings were plastered all throughout the game. I wondered if Summoner's Reality players in the future would hear the story of me.

Another message pinged from Sadie.

"SaltIntensifies (Sadie): oh yeah, they nerfed Book 6 difficulty"

This was news to me – good news, at that. Even with a Woosa, Fran and a bunch of other really good monsters, clearing Book 6 was all but impossible for me, and I really wanted Baleygr. At the end of each "Book" in the game's campaign, you would unlock a nat5 fusion monster. I had been chasing Baleygr for months ever since he was released; when you synced up your Summoner's War account to your Summoner's Reality account, the nat5 fusions didn't port over.

I had to know; what was Baleygr's Character Growth? I had already seen the mini-arcs of all my six-stars; hell, I even sixed Elucia, Roid and Sieq just to see what their stories were. Thankfully, it was possible to play the game's campaign without using the Augmented Reality function; I really didn't want to get into another accident or meet that Herteit again. Oh, that reminded me I needed to six-star Frigate and see his mini-arc...

Soon enough, though, I lost myself in Book 6, unofficially dubbed "The Trials of Baleygr." Jeanne, whom I had unlocked in Book 5, said she heard many things about this Baleygr the Great, and that surely, if he joined our cause, then we could take back the Dark Realm and save the dimensions from that strange half-human half-monster hybrid who called herself Lady Arang.

Veromos was my favorite of the fusion monsters so far; the former ruler of the Dark Realm had his kingdom seized from him by Arang, but he wasn't a bad ruler at all – he just got a bad rap solely for the thought that just because he was a dark monster that he was insane with power. To quote Veromos during Book 1, "The 'Dark Realm' does not mean the 'Bad Realm,' you uncultured fool."

I reloaded Book 6, checking out my progress. It looked like progress had been reset for those who were still unfinished when the difficulty was toned down. I was fairly sure that I had been halfway through the trials of Baleygr before all of this nonsense. Baleygr, in an attempt to see whether or not we really had a chance against Arang or this would just be a suicide mission, set up multiple trials for our team to go through before he would join.

Before I knew it, I was flying through the trials. Sure, they were still difficult, but not downright impossible like they used to be. In a few hours, I had all four trials cleared, and it was time to unlock my Baleygr. He seemed willing to join, now that he saw the true powers of our team and their Summoner (me). Lady Arang would certainly stand no chance against us at this rate.

"Book 6 Cleared!"

A rush of dopamine hit me like a wave.

"Baleygr, the fire Lightning Emperor, has joined your team!"

It was time to awaken this guy, rune him up, and see what his mini-arc was. I liked the voice actor for him quite a bit; he didn't seem like the kind of monster who had a Spanish accent, but it seemed to fit him in a weird way. That was something I didn't expect.

I went to Baleygr's page to get an idea of what to put on him. Rage and Will, or Shield, Will and some other two-set seemed to be the popular choice. Baleygr – and the Lightning Emperors in general – had a unique mechanic, where they absorbed Knowledge that unlocked powerful skills. Baleygr's unlocked skill looked really good; a heavy-hitting AoE attack called "Start of Apocalypse."

I threw some Will and Shield runes on him first things first, before awakening him. I barely had enough fire MIDs to awaken Baleygr, but after fusing some MIDs out of Lows, it was good enough. That was two Growths unlocked; the only way to unlock the third one now was to six-star him. Damn, I didn't have enough Rainbowmon to go through with it. I shrugged. If I had two Growths open, I might as well go and view them.

The first Growth was just Baleygr introducing himself to the Summoner, NovaStorm. Every monster had that as their first Growth; it was only during the second and third Growths that their stories became visible. I thought it was going to be the same as everything else for Baleygr, until a line caught my eye.

"Baleygr: I heard about the accident. My deepest condolences."

My heart skipped a beat. How did he know?

"Baleygr: No one could have known that Herteit would have done such a thing."

I exited out of Summoner's Reality real quick after that; an uneasy pit in my stomach. After a second, I pulled up my Firefox app and started Googling Baleygr's Character Growths. A video on YouTube showed me that there were no lines in the Growth like I had witnessed. It was a pretty recent video too; uploaded about a week after Book 6's nerf. I tried again.

"Summoner's Reality sentient characters"

The only "sentient" character, so to speak, was the Character Growths of Nicki, the dark Occult Girl. Everyone knew about her Growth; a strange young girl who gazed into the Dimensional Hole before its stabilization, and now her body was trapped in the fine line between our reality and another, strange world. There was nothing about Herteit or Baleygr suddenly addressing the Summoner directly about events in their life.

This had to be a dream, I thought. There was no way that characters from a literal game were speaking directly to me. The reason why I got hit was because I was distracted, not because some Herteit lured me out. No LnD nat5 had even showed up yet in the game; what made me think I was so special?

I shook my head. Maybe I really was a bit addicted to the game. I exited out of Firefox and closed my eyes, setting my phone down on my bed. I needed to take a break for a week or so...

Chapter Text

Chapter 3
Newfound

1:50 P.M.

I sighed. I was tired. The days seemed to pass by so much more slowly when I wasn’t playing Summoner’s War. I knew I had to quit for my own good, but now I was starting to regret it.  Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to check on my monsters one time? Just to pop in real quick to say “hi, how are you,” to one of my Lushens or something?

I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. Just ten more minutes until school ended. Then I could go home. My eyes struggled to keep themselves open. The words of my teacher fell on my deaf ears. I wanted to go home, I wanted to go home, I wanted to go home. Whose idea even was it to create summer school? I could catch up over the summer myself, thank you very much. Besides, I only missed perhaps a week of school during the coma. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and fought the urge to check it.

Stay calm stay calm stay calm it’s probably just an email stay calm stay calm stay calm –

To try and take my mind off the notification, I looked at the clock again. Five minutes passed. Five more left to go. I could do this. I could do this. I needed to stay out of trouble during these last few minutes so I could go home scot-free and do whatever I wanted to do; just anything to get out of school. I hated it so much. Was there a subject I even liked in school? I didn’t remember at this point.

Memories of the accident drifted back to me. I shook my head as subtly as I could to clear away the thoughts, but they kept coming back. I still didn’t remember much of what happened in my coma. Was I dreaming? I couldn’t remember. From what I gathered, I went from lying on the ground, staring at the golden armor of Herteit, to waking up at the hospital. Could comatose people even dream?

The day was July the 24^th, 2020.

The ball rang, and I was free. Everyone jumped up at the exact same time, like they had been waiting for this moment. To be honest, I didn’t blame them. I stuffed my books back into my bag and held it by the strap. I figured it was safe to check my phone at this point as I walked out to the hall. Groups of girls passed by me without so much as a glance in my direction. I had my fifteen minutes of fame when I introduced myself as “the girl who got hit by a truck a few months ago,” and those fifteen minutes were long over.

My phone had a notification, dated ten minutes ago. It must have been when it buzzed in my pocket. It had the Summoner’s Reality icon, and I expected it to be a reminder that the Devilmon count was about to reset in the Glory Shop or one of my friends had just discovered a new Secret Dungeon.

“Where have you been, Nova?”

My heart skipped a beat and I stopped dead in my tracks. Another notification popped up.

“Herteit is growing stronger by the day.”

No way. There was no way. A hard lump formed in my throat, and I dashed to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me. Bubbles formed in my stomach, working its way up my esophagus. I entered a stall and locked it, slowly sliding my back down the wall and pulling my knees up to my chin. My phone was still in my hand, but the lock screen had gone dark a minute ago.

I was addicted. Truly, undoubtedly, addicted.

My eyes flew open at the sound of a low voice; “What’s the matter?”

Lushen’s hazel eyes greeted me. His dark brown hair didn’t exactly curl up and defy gravity like you saw in the game, but it was close enough. He had the scar painted down his left eye, and wearing the black and green jester robes that had become oh-so-familiar to me and everyone else in the game. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed and eyes half-lidded. Here was Lushen the wind Joker, the best nuker you could ever have, staring at me in real life with an actual body.

I screamed and jumped to my feet.

He cringed at my sudden yelp. “Nova! Hey, hey, cool it!”

“You’re – you’re not supposed to be here! I’m not even using the AR function in Summoner’s Reality! You’re a game! You’re not real!”

He grabbed me by the wrist. His hand felt solid and warm, like an actual human grasp. Lushen’s grip was tight.

“And what if I told you we are, huh?” Lushen raised an eyebrow. I noticed he was wearing his familiar neon yellow gloves. “What would you do?”

“I-I…” I shook my head. “…I don’t know anymore.”

“Yeah, we’re real, baby.” He let go of me at this point. “And at this rate, we’re all starting to think you might be our hope against Herteit.”

2:13 P.M.

“Aren’t you cold?” I tugged my raincoat closer to my body. Though it was the middle of July, the rain that poured from the skies darkened the atmosphere and chilled to the bone.

Lushen shrugged, his hair now becoming a wet mop. “Nah. Wind guy, remember?”

“Oh,” I said as I shifted my weight to my other foot. I had to relearn how to walk after the coma, and despite being the so-called “miracle case,” I still had trouble with it. I had to relearn many things, actually. The doctors said that people my age in accidents so severe and comas so long had extremely slim chances of waking up, and my mother didn’t want to take me off life support no matter what. I made a silent note to thank her for the fiftieth time for keeping me alive.

“So why’d you quit?” Lushen turned to me, “Baleygr thinks he said something wrong to ya.”

“Damn right he did,” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that?”

I quickly brushed it off. “Nothing, nothing. So what’s up with Herteit? Why’s he going nuts?”

“Durand doesn’t know a lot about it,” Lushen started, “but we think he gazed into the Dimensional Hole before its opening. Sorta like Nicki stepping in there herself.”

The mention of Nicki made me remember my frantic Googling a few days ago. I mean, I knew how she was written to supposedly speak of another world she saw in the Dimensional Hole, but… “…That’s what happened to her?”

“Yeah. A few years back, a Summoner named Leon reported that his Nicki entered the Dimensional Hole and came out a changed girl. He nearly died from what she did after. No one knows what she saw.” He fiddled with a card, flipping the ace of spades between his fingers. “Don’t get me wrong; monsters and humans have coexisted since the beginning of time. But the Dimensional Hole is basically our link that connects the two worlds. The whole story with Lady Arang seizing the Dark Realm and wanting to rule the worlds herself? It’s real.”

“Mm.” I turned my gaze to the puddles forming under the concrete. Mom should be here any minute now… she promised she wouldn’t be late again. “And you and all sorts of mons have been here since the dawn of time?”

“Mhm. Your game, though,” Here Lushen motioned to my phone, “is what allowed you and everyone else to see us. When you get a monster that wants to challenge you? It’s actually someone real.”

I glanced at my phone again. 2:15. Mom should have been here by now. You would’ve thought that after the accident she would at least try to be early or on time to pick me up. I looked over again at Lushen. At some point, he’d managed to calm me down in the bathroom incident. I had asked why he was here. He asked why I could see him all of a sudden. I told him about the accident and with Herteit, and that was what led us to here. Now, I waited on the sidewalk for Mom to arrive and pick me up.

Lushen was absolutely soaked.

“Dude, I know you’re stubborn,” I said. “I’ve read your Character Growths. Get over here and lemme get you my coat.”

“I’m fiiiiine. I always meet up with Charlotte here.”

“Charlotte?” I echoed.

As if on cue, a little girl, not much older than the already young-looking Lushen, walked up to him; her dress bouncing with each step. Her hair was an emerald green and tied up into two curly pigtails. In one arm she cradled a large, well-loved teddy bear, and in the other she held the traditional Occult Girl umbrella. She was adorable.

Charlotte beamed at this point, “Lushen! Hi!”

“Hey, Charlotte!” Lushen grinned at her as she came up closer, holding the umbrella over their heads.

“I’m sorry I’m so late…” She glanced down at her shoes and blushed, “I just got lost is all.”

Lushen waved it off, “Ah, it’s no problem.”

I felt like the awkward third wheel again, not for the first time in my life. “…um, hi, I’m Nova.”

Charlotte gasped and looked up at me, before looking back down at her shoes again. The blush was spreading across her face at this point, and she tried to stutter out a response. It was endearing to watch. I briefly wondered if she was Sadie’s Charlotte. I got a glance of the nape of Lushen’s neck. Six slots were filled up by runes; Fatal and Will. Ah, this one was my main Lushen. I’d been pondering who it was for a while now.

“Oh, she’s shy.” Lushen placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. He turned to Charlotte, “This is Nora – or Nova, as she likes to be called. Girl I was telling you about; the one Herteit got to. Nova, this’s my bud Charlotte. She’s a lone mon. No Summoner.”

Well, there went that theory. Charlotte peeked up at me from behind her pigtails. Her arm holding the teddy trembled for a second, and eventually she held up her hand to wave. I smiled ever so slightly – just an upturn of the corners of my mouth – and waved back to her.

“Hey,” I said.

“…h-hi…!”

There was a splash up ahead on the road. I leaned forward to see a teal car driving up the hill. Finally, I thought to myself.

“Mom’s here,” I motioned to the car. “You guys better go before she sees you.”

Lushen shrugged, “Actually, you’re the first person I know to see us without one of your devices. You’ll be fine.”

The car screeched to a stop, and the window rolled down. I came face-to-face with Mom. Mid-40s, tired eyes, red hair just like mine.

“Nora, hey! Sorry I’m late again.”

I couldn’t help but notice the ‘again,’ “Hey.”

I pulled open the backseat door and swung my legs in. I turned to watch Lushen and Charlotte through the window was I then shut the door. The two of them walked off into the dreary day, yellow umbrella held over their heads. Yellow. Such a pretty color. Mom didn’t say a word about them. Lushen’s comment ran through my mind.

“Have fun today?” Mom turned around and smiled at me.

I smiled back, “…I guess so.”

Mom started to drive home. She asked me about how Sadie was doing nowadays; didn’t we use to be such good friends? I responded that we still talked. Mom said that we used to be such cute little girls back in kindergarten. I said I knew, she talked about it all the time. I looked down at my phone and swallowed.

The secrets I stuffed down to my core were starting to bubble back up inside of me. I wanted to tell Sadie about everything, I really did. Would she even believe me? But, at the same time, all those TV shows and movies loved to make cheap drama of people keeping a secret from their loved ones, and it would all boil over when the loved one finds out about it, when everything could have easily been resolved if the main character talked it out at its beginning.

Something caught my eye out the window. I looked up as we rolled to a stop in front of a red light. Monsters of all kind were milling about. My eyes widened as a Summoner’s Reality player started trying to catch a Karl inside an alleyway. They pulled out a Brandia, and she appeared by their side to fight the Neostone Fighter. Holy crap. Lushen was telling the truth. Was I the only one who could see them?

“Whatcha looking at?” I heard my Mom’s voice.

I snapped out of it, “Huh – oh, nothing.”

The light turned green. Karl and Brandia were out of sight soon enough and I continued to stare out the window. The gravel crunched under the tires as Mom stopped the car in our driveway. I looked back up. I couldn’t remember the drive home. My mind had been occupied with the whole “the Summoner’s War monsters are real” thing.

The rain didn’t stop the entire time, not as we got out of the car and ran for the front door. Mom fumbled with her keys as I pulled my hood up over my hair to keep it dry.

“Hey, Nora,” Mom said as she stuck the right key into the lock, “When you get inside, could you wipe down the kitchen counters for me? I didn’t have time to do it myself before I had to pick you up.”

I nodded, “Yeah, of course. Anything in the mail today?”

“Nope,” Mom finally managed to get the door open, and we headed inside. I slipped my coat off after pulling my phone out of the pocket. My shoes were left on the rug to dry. I headed into the kitchen.

The rain pounded on the window as I wiped the counters like I was asked. Before long, I was done and trudged into my room as the TV turned on. It was another Friday. Mom always came into work super early in the morning on Fridays. Soon enough she’d be passed out on the couch. It was an unspoken rule since the beginning to let Mom sleep as long as she wanted to on a Friday.

Something was lying on my desk. I walked over and picked it up. It was small, flat and blue – another phone of some sorts. This one looked somehow even more futuristic and advanced than my current one. I pressed the home button, and the screen lit up. The lock screen was blank, and a notification was on the screen.

“Durand is waiting for your call.”

My mouth felt dry all of a sudden. I looked back at my room door, before leaning over and shutting it. Whatever this was, this wasn’t going to be something I wanted Mom to see. Something I didn’t want anyone to see. Not even Sadie. I swiped up to unlock the phone. There wasn’t much on the phone; just a calendar app, clock app and a contacts list. I tapped on the contacts app.

Durand: Online
Ellia: Last online 5 hours ago

Durand? Ellia? From Summoner’s War? Oh, why was I so confused about these two of all things? I mean, I had just learned that the Summoner’s War monsters were real, and so far I was the only one who could see them out of my phone. The phone started to buzz, and I snapped my attention back to it. Durand was calling.

Underneath the Accept or Deny button was an instruction: “Upon acceptation, place the compact on the ground and wait two seconds.” It took what felt like ages, but eventually I made up my mind and hit Accept, placing the so-called ‘compact’ on the ground in front of me.

Suddenly the screen lit up, brighter than anything I had ever seen before, and I had to shield my eyes. As I took my hand away from my face, I saw Durand standing in front of me; tall, Summoner’s robes, lazy grin, and fiery red hair that made mine look brown. His image flickered for just a second. It was a hologram.

“Nora Davis,” He started, “My name is Durand, but I’m sure you already know that. You’re going to want to hear what I have to tell you.”