---

It was only matter of time until we arrived back at the parking lot. Erich Caine and I searched around the parking lot and we shortly came across the sleeping but not so beauty.

"Hey, Calssus? Wake up." 

Calssus, naturally, was in a deep slumber. I grabbed the monkey's ear and yanked on it a few times but he still wouldn't wake. 

"Wake up."

I grabbed his face and then proceeded to slap him a couple of times. He still wasn't waking up. He wasn't like this before... No, could it be?

"Calssus? Calssus!" 

I lifted his miniscule body up partially and my heart skipped a beat. Blood started to drip from his hairy stomach and landed on the ground. 

"Gotcha!" 

Calssus' previous dummy figure soon regained its life and he started laughing hysterically. I went ahead and dropped him onto the ground but he kept himself in the air. 

"Haha! You should've seen the look on your face! It was priceless!" 

[The constellation who likes to play pranks says it was a good prank.]

[The constellation 'Mischievous Chiasa Fox' is sniggering.]

The monkey then started to giggle maniacally like an evil child. 

"Enough with the jokes, the fifth scenario is about to start soon. We need you as a guide."

Calssus used his wind and flew himself onto the car in front of me. 

"Aren't you capable of defeating the disasters yourself? You've already killed the Drakon."

"You forgot the ice golem too..."

I said, muttering. 

"Besides, I can't help you with the last one."

"Last one?" I grew confused, there was another disaster? 

"You're a bit slow, aren't you?" The monkey lifted his foot to scratch his head. 

"Just get on with it already."

Calssus dropped his foot and made 4 swirling points in the air with his fingers, North, East, South and West.

"So far, only 4 diasters have hatched. You've killed the Plyembrian Drakon and the Ice Golem Dagurt. The Disaster of Earth, Geaduji has been killed also in the North."

Right. So each disaster spawned on each cardinal point inside Griemore? That meant there was only one left. 

"So the last is the disaster in the South, right?" 

Calssus tutted and smacked my head with his tail. 

"Incorrect. Certainly, the last remaining catastrophe at this moment is in the South but..."

The swirling points indicating North, East, South and West disappeared and a new swirling point formed in the centre, one which gradually grew bigger. 

"This will be the last one. The Disaster of Nightmares."

Disaster of Nightmares? Such a corny name. 

"What's so special about this one?" 

The atmosphere became dark immediately as if I had called upon an ominous spirit. Calssus' lively mood that I had previously known faded. 

"I can't help you in defeating this disaster. Among all the disasters that appeared on Sironde, this was the most dangerous."

My fingers trembled slightly at his unwavering language. Calssus wasn't messing around. 

"So what if it was the strongest? If we all gang up on the disaster together, we'll kill it easily, right?" 

"Naive little boy."

I earned another whack from Calssus Kreocore, but this one was harder. The tail imprint could be visible on my face. 

"First, us guides aren't allowed to fight the disasters. Secondly, it won't be that easy. Whatever you do will barely touch this disaster, it's like this disaster is invincible."

Calssus Kreocore then turned over and layed down, his usual routine but it felt much more cold. 

"I don't know much about that disaster. That's all I could tell you about it."

Silence began to fill the air for a couple of minutes. I came here to unite all the guides quickly, but that plan backfired immediately. 

"Right. Thank you."

I started to walk away and Erich Caine belatedly followed behind. I travelled a few blocks and balled my fists whilst looking in the sky. The way Calssus said it, this disaster was difficult. Hell, we may not even be able to beat the disaster. 

There was a thunderstorm and the intermittent sound of thunder was heard. Even the hole seemed to be getting ready for the fifth scenario. 

"Aksel?" 

I gazed down to see Eric's face. 

"Is something wrong?" 

"No, everything is fine, buddy. Just thinking of a few things."

I ruffled Erich Caine's hair. I would be the cause of his demise. The last disaster would clearly transcend every other disaster. If I could barely make it through the others, how could I make it through this one? If I had not destroyed the throne, would the inevitable disastrous outcome be different? Would I be able to protect everyone? 

[The constellation 'Legendary Tachi Myth' is wondering what you are thinking about.]

[A number of constellations are asking you to speak out loud.]

"Bug off, annoying constellations." I swept my hand in the air as a detterent.

"Let's go, Erich." I began to walk as the thoughts slowly became dormant in my head. I would've informed Mia but this situation came abruptly and time was ticking. I needed to get stronger, for my sake and my companions'.

---

As Erich and I wandered through a district in Griemore, many eyes pierced us, me especially. They all looked ragged and looked exhausted, like they were about to die at any moment. Erich shuddered and walked past them with great haste, I also feared as if they were about to lash out at us at any given moment. My reputation in Griemore clearly didn't seem very positive.

 Just as I was about to call out to Erich, sparks started appear in the air. 

"Again?" I sighed heavily. 

–It's important this time.

Giryu appeared nervous and extremely agitated. 

'What's going on now?' 

–It's about you. There's been a probability meeting concerning you. The Bureau is onto you. 

'What the hell is a probability meeting? Did I do something wrong?' 

–Not really... It's complicated.

Giryu looked around before speaking again. 

–I can't say much, but the dokkaebis aren't liking how quickly and easily you're completing the scenarios. They think you're getting help from a third party. Of course, many eyes will be on me now since you're on my channel... 

'Right. So I shouldn't cause much trouble?' 

–Precisely. Until I figure out this probability request and meeting. They'll also be another dokkaebi in my place whilst I deal with this. 

Losing Giryu temporarily would be a major hit to the stomach. I never really thought I was progressing through these scenarios easily so I was extremely perplexed to find out this sudden information. 

–That's all now, stay safe. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the second sponsor selection will be happening soon. Get ready for that, think of what to do. You'll have a hard time for a while.

And with that, the dokkaebi Giryu vanished. I'm not sure if it was easy to stay safe if I had all these dokkaebis on me, it might just be a miracle that I survive. Not to mention the second sponsor selection, I wondered what I could do in that period, after all I couldn't choose a sponsor or I'd breach the contract me and Giryu have.

I guess that would have to wait though. On the other side of the fading sparks, I could see Erich Caine waving over to me. As he quickly ran off, I chased after him slowly, belatedly remembering this side of Griemore. Koita. This district inside Griemore was the most populous for tourist attractions. In fact, during my days as a photographer I used to visit this section often for my works. 

But the street that was often bustling with tourists and overrun with lively attractions was now basically a ghost town. 

"Aksel! Look at this!"

Erich pointed up to a building. It was an arcade. The Exemplay Arcade. I remembered going to this arcade a few times. 

"Can we go? Just for a little?" he said, whilst displaying puppy eyes. I was about to decline and say that we had more important things to do but I had stopped myself. 

I thought of back when we was munching on monster meat and talking about family. Erich Caine most likely didn't get the luxuries that other kids got, it would be unfair to decline him here. 

"Fine... Only for a little though, okay?" 

Erich began gleaming with delight and soon burst inside the arcade, its neon lights flickering irregularly. 

I swiftly followed behind wary of any dangers that may be lurking inside, my immense concentration was at works. This concentration also led to the arrival of a cold, lifeless body on the ground, who I had accidentally bumped into with my feet.

I peeked around the arcade and it seemed that there were many bodies here, all presumely dead after the first scenario. I glanced over to Erich Caine, he had made his way over dead bodies and to an arcade machine.

"Crap...um..." he mumbled from afar.

"Hey Aksel! Do you have any money?"

I patted my pockets in search for some coins. Right. I wasn't in my normal attire anymore, I didn't have my wallet with me. Who knew you needed such things so late in this apocalypse? 

I then crouched down and rummaged inside a body's pocket and brought out a few coins. 

"Here."

You can play too, Aksel," he said, grabbing the coins. 

"Right. Sure."

The arcade machine finally booted up and the starting screen was finay shown. 'Dungeon Mayhem' it was called. This game used to be everyone's favourite back in the days. I was one of the few unlucky ones that bad at this game.

I grabbed some more coins and put them inside the player two slot whilst Erich slipped them inside the other play slot.

"Do you know how to play this game Aksel? I've never been inside an arcade before."

"I might remember a little thing or two."

I truly did but in the past, I was terrible at this game. This was the one arcade game I avoided when I came here. I wouldn't get past the first few stages before dying. 

Erich pressed the start button and we were shifted onto the character selection screen. 

"This is so cool... I wanna be the mage!" exclaimed Erich. 

There were 5 classes in the game; Mage, Brawler, Healer, Knight and Thief. 

"Sure, go ahead. I'll pick the brawler."

Back in my days, my go to was the mage. But I'd had to make do, right now was my job to entertain Erich. 

Erich slammed onto the start button eager to play, the machine had delayed before showing a blank vantawhite screen. 

"Is this supposed to be happening?" Erich said, worryingly.

"I haven't played this game in a while but I don't think so..."

My head started to ring and my vision became blurry. What the hell was this? 

My vision was soon enveloped into the white screen and the screen became distorted. 

. 

. 

. 

"Damn... What was that?" 

I went to scratch my head and felt my hand was more defined and meatier than usual. It can't be. I anxiously dropped my hand and peered towards the ground. My pupils dilated slowly. 

The ground was made up of cobblestone, and this exact texture was one that I had seen before. Dungeon Mayhem. I then looked down onto my body, my vantablack coat still remained but I could tell even when the coat adjusted, that my build was slightly bigger and brawnier. 

Before I even had more time to think, the sound of gates besides me started rustling and I darted my eyes over. This was the first stage. The gates started increasing slowly and the snarls of creatures started to be heard. The goblins. 

One was out of there quickly and sprinted toward me on all fours. I swiftly reached for my waist and gripped my Dojigiri. The goblin was instantly cut to pieces when I swiped in the air. The upper part of its body flew in the air whilst the lower half skidded on the ground. The rest of the goblins appeared perplexed but reluctantly charged forward. I was bad at this game when I was younger. But that was only when I was controlling the characters. I was now really in this game, with my own body, and with 'controls' I was already used to.

[A new hidden scenario has arrived!]