Yuna opened her eyes. What she saw before her was a vast sky and below her, the ocean whose horizons stretched to who knows how far. The sky was blue and had cute, fluffy clouds scattered through it. When she sat up, she was greeted with an extremely tall and wide framed mirror which sat on top of the water. The frame around the mirror was a bronzed, golden color decorated with intricate floral designs. However, the bottom of the mirror was not framed, instead, it looked as if it was submerged into the water.

It was breathtaking. Within the mirror, it reflected herself and the beautiful scenery. As she looked at herself in the mirror, Yuna carefully examined herself. She was standing upright; her hair and clothes were in place and she was no longer covered in blood. Remembering the crying faces of the twins, Yuna sucked in a sharp breath, feeling a piercing pain to her chest. She couldn’t breathe properly.

[Take deep breaths, Host] C-2’s automated yet surprisingly soothing voice suddenly spoke out, giving Yuna a fright.

“Who’s there?” Yuna looked around herself to see where the source of the voice was coming from.

[Does Host remember anything?]

Yuna stopped freaking for a moment as she recollected herself. “… I’m dead, aren’t I? and this is the afterlife?”

[Not quite. This is the fine line between life and death. The middle plane, as some humans would call it].

“So… I’m going to hell, aren’t I?” Yuna let out a soft chuckle.

[What makes Host think that?]

“I know what kind of life I lived. And I don’t regret. Not one bit.”

[There is no such thing as hell. Only reincarnation or to disappear into nothing. But Host's situation is a little different. Host is not quite dead yet.]

Yuna’s ears perked as she looked around, talking to the vast blue sky, “I’m not dead yet? I can go back to Lucia and Cadence?!” Yuna asked excitedly.

[Yes, Host can. However, in order for that to happen, Host must venture into various worlds and mend the broken ties of another. Once those merits have been collected, only then may Host return to Host’s world.]

A smile blossomed onto Yuna’s face, bringing out her youthful innocence, ”so, it’s like clearing game levels!”

[In a sense, however, there is a slight difference in terms of clearing these worlds and clearing a game level. In these worlds, there is already a certain endgame that has been reached for these characters. Think of these worlds as books/stories. The reached endgame is the ending of these books. These characters, or players, in the book may be fictional to you, however, they are real in their own worlds. Your task is to go from world to world and change the endgame.]

Yuna was astonished. Change the endgame? 

Suddenly, appearing before Yuna was what looked like a HP bar.

[This is your accomplishment Merit bar. Once you’ve reached 100%, you can return to your world. But be aware that once you’ve cleared a world, based on a higher authority’s criterion, the Merit bar will be filled to reflect your performance in the world.]

“... So, you’re saying I will be judged based on my performance and the overall endgame of the world?”

[That is correct. Not only will you be judged on your performance, but the other players impression towards you will have an impact as well. Your execution to the endgame and goal is the major component though.]

“Hm, I see.”

[You can be at ease. I will be there to guide you. Some of the original endgames are gruesome while others are lenient. Good luck, Host. Hope you do your best to stay alive until the new endgame has been reached.]

"But wait, what are the endgames? What if I die before that? Can you not speak in riddles and tell me straight out?! What is my mission?!"

[There is someone who needs your help. Stain their world with your colors. Accomplish the task, gain points and then get the chance to return.]

"How will I know who is the right person who needs my help?"

[Don't worry. When that person arrives, I'll tell you. But before we proceed to the first world, you’ll need to train first.]

“Train? What kind of training?” Yuna asked.

[Martial arts, meditation, weapon-handling, utilization of spiritual energy.]

Yuna raised a brow when she heard some of the given lessons that she will be training for and thought they were ridiculous. But then again, she thought about her current situation. She thought that the afterlife was just an imaginary belief… yet here she was, stuck in the middle plane between the afterlife and the abyss. 

[These are the some of the default trainings I will give you for this world.]

“Meaning there will be more given training sessions for other worlds?”

[That is correct.]

Yuna was quiet for a moment, thinking.

[… Do you not wish to return?]

“I do want to return…”

[Then I hope Host can do her best to help the target in order to return.]

“… Alright. Oh, and I forgot to ask. What should I call you?”

[I go by the code name of C-2.]

“Look forward to working with you, C-2,” Yuna smiled.

[C-2 as well. May the training sessions commence]

Suddenly, the surroundings around Yuna changed. She was no longer on the endless ocean underneath the blue sky but rather on a floating stone rock that was shaped like a circular stage. Surrounding the floating rock where floating misty mountains and falling waterfalls from these mountains. It was a sight to behold. Suddenly, she heard what sounded like a stream of rushing water. Yuna turned around and standing before her was a man made of mist and water. Yuna gave a smirk. She was always open to trying new things, even in death.

***

It was that training field that Yuna spent the next 10 years training in. However, to her, it only felt like 2 months, and this was mainly because the time flows ran differently.

When her training was finally complete, Yuna was returned to the endless sea with the large mirror. C-2 said nothing but Yuna knew what it was that she needed to do. The mirror was actually a portal to the worlds. Once C-2 has selected the world, all Yuna had to do to cross over was to enter the mirror. Reaching her hand out, she broke through the mirror surface. It was a strange feeling. Once her body was fully submerged, the mirror swallowed her completely as if she was a stone, falling into a calm lake.

***

Yuna opened her eyes and was immediately given the information pertaining to the world she had entered into. This was a fantasy-based world in which a demon king ruled more than half of the human’s land, causing a reign of terror in which the only thing humans could do was obey this demon king.

In this world, it revolves around a young maiden named Elena Lockhart, the female lead and the male lead, the third prince of Yvaris Kingdom, Prince Callum Yonnes. They are deemed the male and female lead, not only because of the halos they have from this world but for the fact that many other characters’ lives revolved around them.

As tradition on the continent of Ove, 100 unmarried, young maidens between the ages of 16-24 are to be drafted and given to the demon king as his brides once every 5 years. These brides were seen as peace offerings as to keep the demon king on good terms. Even if his minions ran amok, when killed by humans or mages, the demon king will not retaliate because of the peace offerings. The 125th year rolled around when a new set of brides were to be drafted to the demon king. Once drafted, no one could escape that fate. If the demon king found out that the chosen bride was switched by another, he would come deep in the night and mercilessly slaughter everyone in that maiden’s family and their entire clan.

So, because of these various incidents, no one dared to refuse. It was during this time that Elena Lockhart was one of the unlucky selected maidens to be given to the demon king. Of course, the male lead, Prince Callum, tried going against it, but failed. He was going to be engaged to her but he never thought that the draft would be given the day before he planned to announce his engagement to her. But being this world’s beloved, of course fate could not let them be apart.

After being with the demon king for 3 months, Elena successfully escaped from the clutches of the flesh-eating demon king. When she returned home, Prince Callum had organized an alliance to eradicate the demon king once and for all; to end the reign of terror. However, it was within these past 3 months that the demon king had softened due to Elena; he began to understand what it meant to be human again; his cold, frozen heart began to beat again. However, Elena did not love him. Elena did not love the demon king who killed mercilessly, the demon king who lusted and killed the women he took as peace offerings. He was too evil. When the Cavalry arrived, the demon king was defeated with a heavy heart and the beloved children of this world lived in peace and were in love till the end of their days.

Yuna went over the synopsis of this world. The only thing she could think of was how cliched this world was. It made her head ache with how seemingly annoying the female lead seemed. When Yuna looked at her surroundings, she was in a cozy and small cottage house in which her living room, bedroom, kitchen and study room were practically visible to one another. On her dresser, there was a large oval mirror sitting upright. Yuna got off her bed and walked over to the mirror. There was nothing too exaggerated about her new appearance but one could not deny that there was an innocent charm to her. Iris purple colored eyes with flaming red hair paired with fair skin and light freckles sprinkled across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were large and doll like, filled with stars and the wonders of the world.

After absorbing the memories of the Original, Yuna found out who she was. Iris Lovett, an orphan child from an infant who was found and taken in by one of the strongest mages in the world whose powers rivaled that of the demon king, Merlin Weiss. Not only was he the strongest, but he was also honored and lived exclusively in the royal place of Yvaris in the capital city of Janes. He raised her as his own daughter and as his one of his apprentices.

Because Iris was brought up directly in the royal palace, she often came into contact with the royal family. Although she was older by two years, when she had finally met the 12 years old third Prince Callum, she fell for him hard. However, his heart already belonged to someone else. That’s right, the female lead, Elena Lockhart. However, when the draft came, Iris was also one of the selected few. Entering into the demon palace with Elena, Iris did not know how to react. Iris was a person who was timid by nature thus kept her head low and feelings to herself. 

One by one, the given brides began disappearing. But they knew the reason why - the demon king has had his fill of them so he killed them and ate them. Iris and Elena were a few of the ones who laid low. However, it was also the span over these 3 months that Iris had noticed the changing nature of this demon king. His actions became softer, gentler. Even the way he talked became more and more relaxed. He began treating his remaining wives much better, and in total, there were only five of them left. Although Iris was 21 when she was drafted, being naive; she fell for the demon king However, one night, Elena confronted Iris. She was going to run away.

Iris knew that the demon king’s changes were due to Elena, yet she was going to run away. However, because Iris thought that perhaps if Elena had left, the demon king would come to love her. This thought was proven wrong after she helped Elena escape successfully. The demon king was beyond furious! He broke Iris’ fragile body and devoured her.

Just thinking about it sent chills down Yuna’s spine. Because the original was so timid in nature, she never expanded her magic ability. Merlin never told Iris that when he found her, she was enveloped in a veil of mana, protecting her. She was a child who was loved by mana, but Iris never knew that. Suddenly, someone busted her door open. It was one of Merlin’s apprentices, Jack.

His eyes were opened wide with the most horrifying shock written all over his face. “The draft has been given,” his soft voice sounded into the room. 

Yuna, or Iris, as she will be now known as, tilted her head to the side, giving him a confused expression.

“What will we do? Master Weiss is out on a mission and has yet to return,” Jack muttered to himself as he walked over to Iris.

[The draft of the selected maidens have been issued.]

Iris figured as much. She walked over and looked up to her senior. She was quite petite, standing only to be about 5’1” in height. She was about 4 inches shorter than her actual height, but Iris could care less about her height.

“... I’ve been selected as one of the brides, haven’t I?” Iris’ soft voice brought Jack back from his frantic state.

He looked down to his junior and saw her staring at him with those large eyes, holding no fear whatsoever. It was strange. The Iris he knew always avoided eye contact and kept her head low, but today, she was making eye contact and was standing tall. 

“Let’s go,” Iris said firmly as she walked past Jack to town square where the Pillar of Names was.

When they arrived, Iris assessed the pillar. It was a marble white jade color; beautiful and exquisite. Every time a baby girl was born, one of the demon king’s minions would come to take a drop of blood, inserting it into the Pillar of Names. It monitored the baby’s age and her marital status. When the selection for the brides came around, the pillar would automatically eliminate those who are not of age and those who are married. Even if one was currently dating or engaged, they would still qualify to be taken as a demon bride. He had one Pillar of Names set up throughout the continent, one in each major city.

The Pillar of Names was a magic device created by the demon king himself; it held magical properties in knowing which maidens have married thus the demon king made it law that a maiden was not allowed to be wedded until she had reached the age of 18. If the maiden was to be wedded before her 18th birthday, not only would the maiden’s family suffer, but the man’s family would suffer as well. This installed fear into the humans. Parents would always try forcing their daughter to marrying as soon as they turned 18; this fear tactic has worked but that didn’t mean everyone did so. A hundred maidens were randomly selected from a large population of 140 million on the continent. So, although many parents were scared and paranoid, the chances of being selected were still very small. 

Once the 5th year has rolled around, the 100 names would be randomly selected and displayed throughout the continent of the Pillars for all to see. And when the day came, a ghost carriage would come to pick up the bride. Everyone knew what would happen if they were to refuse, so all they could do was go with reluctantly. 

Iris saw her name as well as Elena Lockhart’s. Once the names have been selected, there was no way of changing it. In two days’ time, the ghost carriage would come to collect the brides. It is within these two days where friends and family would say their final goodbyes, after all, not one bride had once returned after being given to the demon king. 

“What are we going to do?! This time around, the demon king released the selected names a week in advance! Master Weiss isn’t here! What am I going to tell him?!” Jack freaked out. He was one of Merlin’s most trusted and highly recognized mage apprentice.

Iris couldn’t believe how shaken Jack was so she reached out a hand, and firmly held his shoulder.

“It’s alright. I’ll send a letter out to Father to let him know I’ll be alright. I’m not scared,” Iris gave Jack a bright and warm smile, making his heart squeeze.

Was the plain and gloomy Iris always this radiant?

***

Iris went back to her cottage and began meditating. Because C-2 had yet to say anything, Iris was going to do what she could, and at this very moment, it was trying to adapt to the surging energy of mana around her. Iris was kind of dumbstruck as to how the original Iris could not have sensed this irregular surging amount of mana around her. It was obvious that the mana was practically gluing to her, offering her warmth and security.

Two days have passed by in a flash. Just as she had finished writing her letter to Merlin, there was a knock on her cottage door. It was already nighttime. Iris had an idea as to who it was. Opening the door, she was greeted by what looked like an corpse, although they were dressed up in a rather formal suit like a gentleman. His skin was a deathly white color as his eyes and cheeks were sunken in, looking as if he had starved for who knows how long. He wore a black suit and had on a black top hat, covering his bald head. Behind him was a carriage that was attached to two skeletal horses in which had fire and smoke that were burning within its skeletons flowing out. That carriage was black and grey in color, having a misty like look to it. Iris was quite amazed by this sight. Not once had she ever thought she’d be able to see such a scene. Iris then directed her attention back to the man in front of her. In his pocket was a single red plum blossom. 

This was the only color that stood out among his dark and gloomy colors. 

“Miss Iris Lovett,” said the corpse.

Iris smiled and said, “That is me.”

“Are you ready for departure?”

“... I am.”