Sara felt like a stuffed soft toy having its insides pulled out by a toddler. It wasnât exactly painful, just very uncomfortable.
She opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by snow and rock. White flakes of ice swirled through the clear sky as clouds drifted around her feet.
Something told her to look up.
At the mountainâs peak, perched a magnificent dragon with its head held up to the heavens. It looked like a white obelisk. Sunlight shattered against its shining scales, casting the world into color.
âWow,â said Sara. âWhoâd have thought the gate of the afterlife is guarded by a rainbow dragon?â
The dragon didnât respond. Its eyes were slits of red cut from a marble face.
âI have waited for you, Sara.â
The ground shook with the dragonâs words. They seemed to come from every direction.
âReally?" said Sara. "I think I missed the invitation.â Her bravado surprised even herself. That was entirely something Yuzuru would say, but Sara had to admit she wore the attitude well.
Being dead can do that to a girl.
âI am Eris,â said the dragon. âI am Yato. What you call God, some say Ruin. You are not the first to stand before me, but you may be my last.â
The air was cold, absent. Sara couldnât see her breath fog even though ice was beginning to stick to her skin.
âIâve never been hit on by a dragon before,â she said, and thought she saw a glint in the dragonâs blood-red eyes.
A gust of sudden wind blew Sara off her feet. She tumbled into the sky, screaming but no air was there to carry her voice. All she heard was the dragonâs great roar.
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âAnswer me, Sara. Are you worthy?â
Sara felt her stomach rising to her throat. Blood thumped against her ears. Her heart stuttered with the feeling one got from standing too close to a bass speaker.
âOf what?â she shouted, forcing the words from the vacuum inside her.
The sky vanished. Clouds turned into opened eyes, spewing electricity from their crackling pupils.
Sara opened hers and saw her life flashing past. All the good memories, the bad, the downright painful. She saw her parentâs plans for her future, her coachâs gross advances, her brotherâs cold shoulder. The images zipped past like road signs on a highway, too brief for any to have impact but together, weaved a life not quite happy, not entirely sad.
Not quite how she remembered.
The dragon stood on its hind legs, wings cracking open with a sonorous boom, blocking out the entire world with its stark white form.
âAre you worthy of facing your own calamity, Sara? Or will you pass the mantle and return to the dead world whence you came?â
Return.
Sara couldnât believe it. Was this a choice for her to go home? Back to her reality? She wanted it so badly it hurt, more than being crushed into the cold void. She opened her mouth to say it. But she couldnât.
No. She didnât want to.
Wind stopped. Sara fell back onto the snow. She looked up at the dragon, a cut-out against the black sky. Across this dark canvas streaked a network of glowing veins, pulsating with the same energy that ran inside Saraâs own body.
âIâm staying,â she managed to say.
The dragon opened its jaws wide, a single syllable exploding out. âWhy?â
Sara took a deep breath to settle the pounding in her ears. Her head spun like the inside of a dryer, and with each frantic heartbeat, she felt the world shifting under her feet, as if about to slip away at any second. She raised a finger at the dragon. âIâve watched enough games to know what you are. Youâre the End Game, the Boss, the Last Level. Youâre the reason Iâm here, that any of us are brought here for.â
The dragon answered with lightning.
Sara smiled, ignoring the scalding flashes crashing past her face. âAnd Iâve always wanted to know what it felt like to kill a god.â
Thunder cracked the world open. The mountains fell into darkness, bringing Sara with them. She fell, not screaming but smiling, because just as the fissure closed over her, she saw that the dragonâs lips were pulled back as well.
âI'll be waiting here,â it said.
The last thing Sara was aware of before everything went silent, was the cheery sound of her table pinging with a new point.
> New Attribute Point Gained.
>
> Chaos Control: 1