The inky black sky extended over the city skyline, encasing the entire place in a foreboding darkness. Under the flickering streetlights, desperate moths scatter and fly towards the light helplessly, entranced by the light and baked to death through the overwhelming heat generated by the filament.

Behind the glaring lights, there was a lady sprawled across the ground, right under the shadows of the streetlights around her that cast onto her like a spider's web. A pool of blood splattered from where her head was, followed by several deep claw markings all over the back of her neck to roughly where her shoulder were and couldn't be seen under her clothes.

But that was not the strangest part of this murder- her blood was an eerie, bright purple color, dripping down straight from her cracked forehead. On the ground, an ominous message was written in blood, illuminated by the streetlamps-

"Let's light up the flames of war, shall we?"

---

Ace stared up towards the ceiling, being physically unable to sleep. He had taken 5 rounds to the kitchen to grab snacks from the fridge, ate in the living room while scrolling through the internet on his phone, before falling back into his bed and tried to pass out. Pulling back the curtain, he stared blankly at the empty pitch-black sky. There was a single moon that was shaped like the Cheshire cat's grin, as if it were openly mocking him.

Yes, yes I done fucked up. Stop reminding me. Ace grunted as he strode out of his room, slamming the door shut. As he stretched his arms up absentmindedly, he thought, let's go out for a breath of fresh air. Sure if his parents found out that he snuck out of the house at 3.12am no less, it could get messy, but it's not like they truly cared for his well being anyway. Grabbing his wallet and car keys, Ace brazenly walked out of the back door, and ran across their back door garden. The scent of wet leaves and dirt filled the cold air, and it gave him a bit of a distraction for his frazzled mind. With his right hand, he pushed up his windswept bangs with his forefingers, and felt that his forehead was damp and extremely warm. The sound of cicadas or crickets- Ace wouldn't be able to tell their cries apart- filled his ears, probably a mating call, those horny bastards.

When Ace was standing right near the tall hedges leaning against a brick wall that surrounded their mansion, he pulled the leaves back to reveal a decent sized hole in the wall. Just hurry up and get out of here. He felt another migraine coming up, so he hastily squeezed out of the hole.

His shiny red car was still waiting for him in the driveway, like an old friend, under the mysterious glow of the moon. Somehow even the name of a color made him think of what happened. Gah, maybe he shouldn't have ran out of the house so hastily.

His car ran along the long, seemingly endless highway. It was like a surreal dream- not a single soul along the streets, the strange silhouettes of buildings of all shapes and sizes jutting out from the ground like the set on a theater stage, the entire world was set in a sea of varying gray and black. To Ace, it was a world ripped of its illusions, sitting in its bare naked, raw, simple state.

After driving for about half an hour, he stopped by a 24-hour convenience store to buy a drink. On his way out, he could see two suspicious figures standing on the pavement. One of them was trudging forward slowly as if he was tired to death, while the other was running quickly while carrying a lot of books against her chest. Are there even people who would go out this late at night when they are not partying or clubbing? Curiosity gripped him, and he decided to walk by and see what happens.

"Kya!!!" Ace could hear the high-pitched scream of a girl, along with a loud thud. On reflex, he ducked into an alleyway, with his back against the wall. Cautiously, he peeked from the edge of the wall.

The young girl had short but poofy black hair that shone under the moonlight, and was wearing a long cape and a pointed hat with a purple bow. A cosplayer, maybe? The stacks of paper she was carrying had flew everywhere, and the books had been scattered all over the ground in a heap. She was also sprawled all over the ground, right below a boy with purple hair wearing a dark hoodie who had fallen over forwards and his face was inches away from hers. From this angle, Ace could not see his face.

From what Ace could assume, they both bumped into each other. Well no shit, with the way the girl was frantically rushing and the guy being distracted. Other than the setting, it looked like a scene out of a high school romance show.

Urgh, why are there so many things out there reminding him of that awkward and painful rejection? Just go to hell and die, brain.

"What, get your hands away and stop staring!" The girl said, flustered, her voice rising by a few octaves while blinking her round pink eyes, "or did you bump into me on purpose?" As she crawled out of underneath him, her skirt shifted up, causing her blue and white striped panties to be shown. The girl furiously blushed so hard that the redness of her cheeks could be seen under the moonlight.

Ah this would be the scene in a cringe filled romance where the girl punches the guy. Ace prayed for the boy's safety quietly from his position. The girl began to squirm and opened her mouth-

"Who says the world revolves around you just because you look pretty, bitch?" The boy's voice was as searing cold as ice, snapping Ace out of his thoughts suddenly. The boy lifted himself off the ground in one smooth motion, making a dirty grimace as he wiped his hands of dirt on his pants, leaving the girl stunned.

"Don't think I didn't notice that slutty act earlier, don't touch me and spread your STDs to me," he cussed under his breath. Every word enunciated was like a piercing dagger through the girl's chest, who was shocked at that outburst.

"W-wh-what did you say?" She cried out, trying to get up. Ace could see the pain and embarrassment that crossed her face, feeling a need to walk there and knock some sense into this guy. Isn't it obvious that it was just an accident? What is with that attitude?

As the boy was walking away, the girl started scrambling to pick up the fallen papers and books, shoving it into her arms recklessly. Halfway, she broke into sobs, and Ace could watch her chest rise and fall unevenly with her quick breaths. A lone girl sitting in the middle of the street at night and crying was quite a pitiful sight.

"Alright, alright, stop tearing up over this. I'll come and help you for just this one time, so that you can get out of my way," the boy said, shaking his head. He walked back to where he bumped the girl, and leaned over to pick up a purple book with golden embroidery.

"I d-don't need your help! Don't even try to touch the books!" The girl forced out through her tears, trying to sound pissed but it sounded more like a whimper. She shoved more papers into her hands at a faster speed, crumbling the edges of the pages in the process. She looked utterly frightened when she saw the purple book in his hand.

The boy picked up a particularly thick, dark red book with an intricate cover. As it was lying face flat on the ground, he flipped it over, letting it fall open in his hands. In a split second, girl's eyes widened so much that her pupils dilated, and she poised her body back with her hand in her pocket.

In the next instant, a swirling dark mass emerged out of the page, causing the boy to drop the book from surprise. It conjugated into the shape of a large tree with roots for legs, and dark empty holes on its trunk where two red orbs appeared for eyes.  It was massive, as tall as a two story house, with huge long branches that swing around menacingly. The leaves on this tree was strangely dark orange, as if it was autumn. For some reason, it was heading towards them.

Ace rubbed his eyes with his hands for a few seconds. Am I dreaming? Did I finally go crazy from all the stress from today?

"Get away!" The girl screamed.

 One long and thick root was jabbed into the ground where the boy had been standing, breaking the concrete.

"What the heck is that?!" The guy shouted, as he started running away from the tree monster.

"Ah ah ah, I'm most definitely screwed this time, my folks will most definitely kill me," the girl talked to herself nervously as she herself was running away alongside him, mixing a bunch of chemicals in a small cute glass container in the shape of a diamond, "they'll feed my dead corpse to Russell and Timber. I don't want to end up as dog food. I still haven't met my favorite voice actors yet-"

"Do you know how to get rid of this. Thing?" He said, losing his patience.

She nodded quietly, adding two pinches of sand into the container, and started shaking it intensely, causing its contents to glow yellowish-green. With a loud grunt, she flung the entire container onto the tree, but it harmlessly rolled off its branches and onto the ground. The tree monster continued its attack to the two people without even a flinch.

"What was that?!" The boy yelled in disappointment.

"Sorry for my crappy aiming skills! If only this is a quick time event in a video game, my arms are too weak," she complained.

Ace had no time to eavesdrop on their conversation further as the monster made eye contact with him. Time seemed to slow down as a branch quickly accelerated towards him, allowing him to narrowly dodge in time, yet he rolled out in front of the boy and girl.

Exposed. When Ace saw the boy's shocked face and the girl's worried one, he smiled awkwardly as he joined them.

"What is the potion supposed to do?" Ace decided to cut to the chase. There must be a reason why she just threw that yellow green liquid after all. It was her book, so maybe she had planned a way to deal with this weird monster if an accident did happen.

"Huh? Oh, the potion just melts anything other than the jar. If you throw it with enough force into the tree's eye, it will melt its insides and the Dendron will wilt," she said, but then she sighed, "but that was the last of my ingredients. I can cast a few magic spells, but they are too weak to take it down. Its branches move fast, but the monster travels slowly, so we can outrun it if I distract it."

"And let THAT wreck the entire town?" Ace could not help but let those words flow out of his mouth, as he tore his gaze away from Kiwi's family bakery's cheerful sign from across the street. Wait, now I care about the lives of strangers selflessly like a typical Male Lead in a hero comic? Talking to the girls and that goody-two-shoes of a guy had rubbed off their personalities on me, Ace thought as he rolled his eyes and let a smile creep onto his lips.

"Then what are you waiting for? Use your magic!" The guy roared, and the girl shirked back with a timid nod as she flipped open a book on top of the stack.

Suddenly, Ace stopped, turned back 180 degrees and sprinted towards the monster. It was like once he had the idea, his legs started moving like clockwork on their own.

"No wait, stop! You could get killed!" She yelled out as Ace started darting across the road.

As the branches came stabbing like spears towards him, Ace managed to barely weave in and out of the way using his reflexes. The girl chanted a series of spells, and Ace saw many balls of pulsating light fly towards the tree monster, making the monster slow down to deal with them. Ace was entranced for a while, but quickly focused back to his goal.

Right between the tree monster's roots, was the familiar diamond glass bottle resting on the road. Ace bent down and stretched out, managing to grip the sides of the bottle into his fingers. Right! Got it!

Just then, he heard a swooshing sound as he swiveled around to see a particularly sharp branch fly towards his face. Ah crap he let his guard down. Ace had no time to act or think as he placed his arms in front of him, bracing for a hit.

CRASH!

As Ace opened his eyes, he saw the back of the purple haired boy. In front of him, half of the tree monster's branch had been wiped clean off, while a huge neon blue magical symbol was floating in the air in front of the boy.

"Uh? Where did that come from?' The purple haired boy said in surprise. That's what I wanted to ask you! Ace thought, but he decided to not take this opportunity for granted as he pulled his body back, aimed, and then released the bottle.

The potion sailed neatly in an arc, dropping squarely into the tree monster's 'eye' and broke. All at once, the creature stopped moving, and the red eyes disappeared while the leaves browned, looking just like a regular dead tree on the side of the street.

The three of them sighed in unison. Ace felt his muscles ache as if they were on fire as his legs gave way from under him, causing him to plop onto the road. The last time he felt this worn out was during the championships last year. But what was more concerning was that some huge fantasy monster came out of a book, and somehow magic practitioners actually exist? 

"Woooow, the 3D illusions and props are just so life-like," Ace said, impressed as he brushed sweat off his neck, "are you both making a movie, or is this an elaborate prank show? I was almost fooled over there." Ace laughed heartily.

"Sorry, but I'm not 'in' on this prank either," The purple haired boy said snidely, with a frustrated expression, "the weird symbol floating in midair is probably her doing."

The girl had already stood up, and she smiled apologetically while tilting a new bottle with a white liquid in her hand.

"I know you just saved me, but... I'm really sorry!"

This sudden apology gave Ace a bad feeling in his gut. She popped the bottle open, and a strange white mist filled the air. The moment Ace breathed it in, he was knocked out.

---

When Ace came to, he felt his arms was being bound by rope, albeit not tightly, onto a chair, and dread filled his chest like tight knots in his stomach. Ace opened his eyes to a beautifully strange living room with dark purple walls and elegant brown furniture, and looked like a room that was supposed to belong in the Victorian era. Strange golden animal carvings decorated table tops, dark blue symbols covered one side of the walls and what really drew his eye was a huge ornamental glass cabinet brimming with all sorts of weird objects from chemicals(?) to plastic containers labelled and stuffed with herbs (?), as well as a collection of animal specimens- the dead bodies of  small animals (?) were kept in tall or round glass jars filled with liquid, some floating with their eyes closed peacefully as if they were just asleep.

Seeing that, it calmed Ace down, even though the sight of dead animals still unnerve him. They did not look normal, some birds with scales like a fish, insects with the head of a lizard, or reptiles he was mostly certain did not exist in any encyclopedia ever.

She's a scientist? Ace reasoned. A mad scientist who specializes in biology, that could explain why the tree got up and moved, the chemicals she used, and the collection of dead animals. At the very least, keeping him tied up loosely and placing him in a living room, this kidnapper was not very experienced, was she? He felt a body behind him, and turned to see the back of purple hair.

That boy is here too, how did she manage to drag both of us here by herself? Ace thought. Is there an accomplice involved?

"Fwaaah, why can't my magic work on him?" Ace could hear the girl's voice sound pained, "It's so strange that someone was able to block my spell, even in an unconscious state. I've never seen that insignia before... could it be ancient magic?" When he heard her footsteps go down a flight of stairs, he shut his eyes and rolled his head back.

"Ouch!" The purple haired boy yelped in confusion when he felt his the back of his head being knocked by Ace's. Oh, my bad.

"You're already up, I see," the short haired girl said, as Ace could hear her stop in front of them with the click from her short heels.

"I see? What is the goddamn meaning of this?!" The boy said sharply, pushing his tied-up arms against the rope to escape. Ace could feel the rope bounding his waist go tighter. It felt slightly painful, dashing Ace's hopes that it had all been just a bad dream.

"Eep! I'm so sorry! I just didn't know what to do after you've seen the book!" The girl squealed in terror at the boy's outburst. Just who is supposed to be the kidnapper and captive again?

"So you decided to bind me up on a chair in your living room," The boy cut in, disgruntled. After that, there was a slight pause.

"...Wait a second, you're a living and breathing witch, aren't you? With magic spells, familiars and sketchy voodoo and all?" Ace could hear the boy say hesitantly.

"I don't practice voodoo, but y-yes I'm a witch."

Ace could feel the chair shake violently from beneath him for a second.

"Right. Right. Right! So that's the deal," Ace could hear him grit through his teeth, "let me tell you something. I am not playing your game."

"My game? Which one?" The girl sounded very confused, "Flame Emblem? Calling of Duty? President Evil 6? Or do you mean-"

"Not those games!" The boy shouted in frustration, then he sighed, "the game assigned by the Gods."

"Eh? A Gods' game? Huh? Really? I have one?"

"You aren't even involved in the dating sim?!" The purple haired boy shouted in astonishment.

"I don't think- hey where did that menu screen come from? Mystical Hearts?" The girl said, as if she were reading from something.

She started giggling like a madwoman. "I'm in a game! An actual honest to god God game! And it's a dating sim!" She gushed as if someone told her that she just won the lottery. "I think I must have missed the announcement when I was binging this season's anime last night," she said, embarrassed.

You managed to miss an announcement that is literally blaring into your brain? Just how careless is this girl?

"Ey? Why are you on the cover image, purple boy? Even this other guy is in the far right in the picture," She asked after a pause, dumbfounded.

Is she referring to me? I'm dragged into a game with these two?

"Let me out," that boy was completely stoic.

"Ah, so you're the main character, what a bummer," she said with disappointment, "I was hoping for an ikemen (hot dude), or at least someone with a decent personality..."

"Oh I'm so very sorry to be unable to keep up with your low standards," the boy said sarcastically, "I don't know what you are up to, but there is no way you're going to win points with me, even if you seduce or torture me right here."

"S-s-seduction while torturing?! What kind of weird kinks to you have?!" The girl yelled, sounding very flustered.

"Don't go putting words into my mouth, you otaku trash! You're the pervert who bound two guys up onto a chair in your living room!"

"I'm not trash, I'm cultured!" She yelled indignantly, "And I would be glad to get rid of you! Well... Once I actually manage to erase your memory, that is." She muttered the last part of her sentence sheepishly.

"Erase memories?" His voice was almost

"Actually, I can't for some reason. For someone who seems to have such a powerful barrier to be so bewildered by the presence of magical beasts, simple magic spells and even your own barrier is beyond me," she said in confusion, "maybe you are a great actor? Or maybe someone planted this barrier spell onto your person without your knowledge."

"Does all that crap even matter?" His voice was turning impatient.

"Of course it does!" She said fiercely, "my mother will kill me if I don't wipe out your memories of our kind, especially with tensions rising between the werewolf and vampire races... And here I go, spilling out secret information again. Right!" She sounded very determined, "I'll start using gold ranked magic. This is going to take quite some time... But please bear with me until I break through this barrier!"

"I'm afraid to ask, but how long are you going to keep us here?" Ace spoke up wearily while opening his eyes, tired of hearing the whole banter between the other two people in the room.

"Oh, you're awake! Thanks for helping out just now," the girl's voice turned cheerful as she clapped her hands together, "My family would have killed me if I let a rogue monster destroy half of town. I'm sorry but you'll have to wait here until I manage to erase purple boy's memories before yours. To answer your question... Every gold spell takes about half an hour to be fully cast for someone like me. It all depends on which spell manages to affect him."

"Purple boy? I have a name, you know?" He said condescendingly.

"Yeah you know what, I don't fucking care," her voice turned chilly as she glared at him down with those fiery red eyes.

Ace managed to loosen the ropes through their long conversation, and so he stretched out his arms lazily, relaxing his body. This dating sim is probably not going to advance for quite some time, he surmised, looking at the young, strangely dressed girl who was pooling over a bunch of books on the ground, deep in thought as she scrunched up her eyebrows. This is one of the love interests, huh? She... is a rather unique character, seems like an airhead and a huge dork, but he could see the appeal of having a shy and nerdy love interest to some people.

Purple hair, on the other hand, seems to hate this girl with a surprising passion? He did talk about not wanting to play the Gods' game pretty vehemently. I can relate to that. I am almost done with getting out of this rope, but I'm not going to risk it until I'm sure she is distracted.

From beyond the living room, there was a kitchen that was surprisingly modern and standard like any other kitchen. What was I expecting, a kitchen that looked like an alchemist's laboratory? In that kitchen, there was a back door leading outside that was slightly left ajar, leading straight outside to a garden. What a careless abductor we have here. Out of all my experiences, this was the most low effort kidnapping yet. I felt very tempted to call her out on this.

The black haired witch was just about ready with her new spell, bringing out five candles, mysterious ashes and a long sheet of paper. Just then, the doorbell rang. Her face paled as the things she was holding clattered all over the floor.

"Lilia, are you here? Do you know what day this is, why are you holed up here playing video games again? If you don't answer the door-" A woman's voice rang out from outside the door as the girl started shaking in fear.

"I'm coming! Just... don't come in, it's really messy inside. Hahahaha... haha.." she said while laughing awkwardly, rushing to open the front door. For a second, she glanced over to the two boys on the chair behind her and gulped.

The moment she stood right in front of the front door, Ace stood up reflexively, letting the rope around his waist fall by his knees. Without wasting time, he made a mad dash into the kitchen, and flung open the back door into fresh air.

It was a beautiful garden, one that he had never seen in his life. It was bursting with colorful flowers and shrubs, but he didn't have any time to relax and admire the strange flowers. Ace leapt over the low shrubs out into the streets. At this time, dawn was steadily advancing, and people started to wake up and become active.

How long was I trapped in there? Ace thought as he looked back. The house looked completely normal on the outside, while the garden from before looked like a completely empty lawn. He stared back at the illusion in shock, waving one hand above his eyes repeatedly to see if his vision had problems.

"Stop doing that, you look like you're crazy."

Ace could see the purple haired boy stand right next to him suddenly. So he escaped right after me. Ace wanted to ask him a question.

"Do you want to get caught again?" The purple haired boy asked while pulling his arm, "let's go to somewhere else before she gets back."

---

When they ended up in the alleyway, Ace felt that the wind was being knocked out of him from all the running, but the other boy looked way worse for wear. Ace decided to break the tension between them.

"Am I crazy?" Ace asked wearily.

"Unless I am crazy as well? No, you're not." The boy said, while looking very dazed, "I have not a clue what even happened. The tree thing that came out from the book, the shiny orbs the girl could send flying out of her hands and witches. I thought it was just a joke. Witches can't be real."

"The blue floating circle in the air. The girl called it a barrier? And it's yours?" Ace asked curiously.

"That appeared on its own," the boy replied sourly, "I have no idea what made that girl say that the barrier was my magic. I don't even believe in magic until I was forced to face its existence today."

They fell silent for a while. Ace's head was still spinning from activity, and it did not help that he was starting to feel fatigue from not sleeping at all at night.

"By the way, thanks for protecting me from that huge monster," Ace said gratefully, "despite me being a stranger. And don't get me wrong, but you don't appear to be the friendly guy."

The boy put his hand through his messy hair and sighed, "I get what you mean. I did treat that girl too rudely even though she didn't deserve it."

"You said that you wanted nothing to do with the game," Ace said, and he could see the other boy visibly stiffen up.

"Yes, yes I did," the boy said sharply, "and nothing you'll say will change my-"

"Nah, I feel the same way," Ace interrupted him, and shrugged his shoulders, "I don't want to get involved in another dating game again."

They stood in silence yet again, but Ace could see the other boy's shoulders relax, causing him to slump against the dirty alley wall. The sky was dipped in a sea of vibrant orange as the sun was rising steadily, as grey clouds float lazily in the distance. All around them, Ace could feel the city stirring into life, from lights in individual rooms in buildings being turned on, to the sound of vehicles speeding along the highway and birds crying out to each other.

"Pace."

Ace was confused. "Excuse me?"

"That's my name," the purple haired boy said, mildly annoyed. He then bit his lip before continuing.

"Let's find a way to break out of the game," Pace said, extending a hand awkwardly. Ace slowly grabbed onto his right hand and shook it while smiling.

Little did they know, their futures were more deep rooted into the game than they anticipated.

:

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---

The next day... underground in a secret cavern recently constructed under a certain sakura tree:

"Commencing... the first ever meeting of the Ace Official Fanclub!" The girl with long hair screamed as party poppers were set off, causing brightly colored rainbow confetti to fly all over the otherwise futuristic and modern meeting room.

"Woah! Woah! Melissa, this room is so huge, it really feels like a secret base!" The brown haired girl in the room could hardly contain her excitement, wandering all over the room with shining eyes.

"Well... All I did was blow up most of my savings to build this underground base right under the sakura tree," Melissa said dismissively, folding her arms.

"You do realize that his is much more crazier than what Ace spends his money on, right?" Red quipped, while beads of sweat rolled off his forehead, "And that guy spent his money on Sakura tree camouflage and a magical girl costume."

"Don't sweat the details," June told him while resting her back against the soft cushioned seats, "there is no limit to how much we can spend for this cause."

"No limit?" Red echoed. All the girls swiveled their chairs towards him as it felt like time itself had slowed down. An ominous feeling crept up his spine as they stared down at him with wide eyes.

"Ok, I get it," Red said meekly, as he felt his soul withdrawing from his body.

Why did I even join this group of Ace crazed lunatics in the first place?