I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I left the virtual world and returned to reality, but finding myself pushed down against the floor with a knife held to my throat was certainly not it.

“Where is he!?”

The cool steel of a knife pressed against my throat, but oddly enough, it did not draw any blood. I stared at the person pushing me down in a daze.

“Answer me!”

The girl on top of me put all of her strength into cutting open my throat with her knife. The pressure on my neck did increase, but that was it. I couldn’t understand what was going on at all.

“E-Eden..?”

Her green eyes widened in surprise and I echoed her surprise. My voice sounded strangely familiar, but it wasn't mine.

The knife on my neck trembled. My words had seriously rattled the girl. A moment later, her lips formed into a frown and the furious light in her eyes reignited.

“That is right. I go by Eden in Tower of Yg. I’m surprised you recognize me. After all, I am nothing more than a mere human to you.”

Eden’s silver hair sparkled under the ceiling light. No matter how impossible the sight was, it remained the same every time I closed and opened my eyes. Something was seriously wrong to the point where I stopped caring why I woke up with a knife held to my throat.

“No, you don’t get it… Eliza, you look exactly like Eden. Even your clothes match.”

Eliza, or should she be called Eden with her current appearance(?), froze. Her eyes remained on me as her free hand reached up to her bangs and pulled a strand of silver hair in front of her eyes.

“You don’t seem too surprised.”

“Suddenly turning into my game character is nothing in comparison to seeing you in real life, Serafall.”

My heart stopped. It finally clicked with me. My voice sounded a bit young, kind of like Demon King Serafall’s voice in the beginning of the fight.

“You are mistaken. I am not Serafall. I am—”

Eden interrupted me.

“I don’t believe you.”

It was unfortunate that Eden and I weren’t close enough for me to know any secrets of hers. Anything I might say would sound like a lie from her most hated enemy. Eden resumed her interrogation.

“What have you done to him?”

There could only be one person she was talking about. The corner of my lips tugged upwards in a smirk, despite the craziness of the situation.

“I didn’t know you cared so much about me. I’m touched.”

Before I knew it, I found myself having fun antagonizing Eden. Unlike the usual me, the results from earlier already proved that Eden would not be able to beat Demon King Serafall. I apparently had some of Serafall’s abilities as Eden’s knife was unable to hurt me no matter how hard she pressed her knife against my throat.

“Shut up or I will kill you.”

Eden discarded her knife and manifested [Claiomh Solais]. I came to my senses in a cold sweat. All of a sudden, teasing the hero pinning me to the ground no longer seemed like a good idea.

“Why do you have [Claiomh Solais]?”

[Claiomh Solais] was an echo weapon that only existed in the Tower of Yg.

“That is irrelevant. All you need to know is that I won’t hesitate to use [Claiomh Solais] on you should you fail to give me an acceptable answer.”

It was not irrelevant. If Eden could bring her echo weapons from Tower of Yg into the real world, then perhaps I could too.

I closed my eyes and focused on sensing if any echo weapons were bound to me. For some reason, I sensed [Lux Staff], [Holy Word], [Umbra Sanctuary], and Mom’s [Key of Destruction].

[Key of Destruction] was currently active while the other three were in a dormant state. Why was [Key of Destruction] active? No, that didn't matter. I deactivated it for now, planning to activate [Umbra Sanctuary] and prove my identity. A sudden wave of heat filled my body and I heard a shocked gasp above me.

“A-Am I dreaming?”

I opened my eyes. Eden was staring at me with a strange expression on her face. [Claiomh Solais] slipped from her fingers and hit the carpet next to my head. Something had shocked Eden to the core.

“What happened?”

I knew something was wrong the moment I spoke up. My voice had changed again. I easily recognized it this time. Eden attacked before I processed this latest twist.

“Iris!”

The hateful face of the hero wrapped me up in a tight hug. It was quite frankly uncomfortable with how the metal bits of her armor were digging into the exposed skin of my bodysuit’s open chest design.

“Get off of me!”

I tore Eden off of me, or tried to at least. She clung to me so tightly that it was like her life depended on it. Much to my horror, Eden was now stronger than me.

“No! I promise, I will never leave you alone again.”

I couldn’t see her expression because of our hug, but I thought I detected a hint of tears in her voice. Panic crept into my tone.

“W-What are you talking about!?”

“We all saw your final battle against Demon King Serafall.”

I paled and all of my fight left my body. Eden took advantage of my lack of resistance to hug me even closer to her.

In the heat of battle, I forgot a basic tenant of Tower of Yg. Those that died in battle would be able to stick around as ghosts until the entire party was wiped out. Athena, Brynhildr, Cross, Dawn, Freya, and Eden saw everything.

No, it wasn’t just them. Eden was livestreaming our battle. Everyone that watched the livestream saw me fight Demon King Serafall. They had all watched me fight in Iris’ embarrassing outfit and say a bunch of embarrassing things.

I averted my gaze from reality and ended up looking into the body length mirror resting on the wall of my room. I saw an overwhelmingly enthusiastic hero hugging a girl with matching, silver hair.

Her light, amethyst eyes were wide open in disbelief. The girl looked just like a delicate and frail princess. Her dainty hands hung uselessly in the air, unsure on whether to hug the hero back.

There was no sign of the defeated and downtrodden boy I usually saw in the mirror.  That delicate princess in the mirror… was me. I had become the game character, Iris. Looking in the mirror, I saw a princess glowing with a radiant light that matched well with her hero.

…Her hero? Did I really just think of Eden as the hero of Iris? That was wrong! I only had one hero, and that hero was not Eden.

I activated [Key of Destruction] and another wave of heat filled my body. The princess in the mirror transformed.

Black hair so dark that it seemed to absorb the light around it framed the childishly innocent face of the Demon King being hugged by the hero. A pair of red eyes shone with a bewitching light. The curved horns on the side of her head marked her as a demon.

The young girl in the mirror was now wearing an obscene red dress that was mismatched against her small chest.

“I said, get off of me!”

I easily tore that hateful hero off of me. She gave a startled yelp as she fell on her butt. Angry green eyes glared at me with hostility.

“Change back.”

“Hmph. Why should I?”

This distance, this tension, was much more comfortable for me.

“In both the game world and the real world, Iris is mine. Give me back my wife.”

The hero’s words were so heartfelt that anyone would have been moved. Unfortunately for Eden, I wasn’t just anyone.

“I refuse.”

“Why? Why do you refuse my simple wish, Serafall?”

“...Serafall? No, you are wrong.”

Suddenly, I didn’t like the distance between us. I wanted to be closer to her and I didn’t hesitate to act on that desire. Because of my much smaller body, I had to stand on my tiptoes to bring my eyes closer to the same level as Eden’s eyes. Even so, I fell short.

“I am not Serafall. I am your precious Iris. Do you no longer recognize me now that I look like a Demon King?”

“N-No way..!”

Eden gasped in horror. Her eyes searched my face. She grew paler and paler with each passing second. I smirked in happiness at being able to get back at her for all the embarrassment she put me through.

My eyes, hair, and clothing may have matched Serafall’s appearance, but everything else was Iris. My current appearance was just a younger form of Iris. I had noticed it the moment I looked into the mirror.

“That is right. The one who you threatened with a knife, the one you wanted to kill, was your so-called wife. If you cared about me at all, you would have noticed the moment you laid eyes on me.”

Instead, Eden had hyper focused on my black hair and demon horns. Along with the red dress I was wearing, she instantly assumed I was Serafall. The usually confident hero flinched at my words.

“That can’t be!”

“Face it, hero. Between your favor towards Iris and your anger towards Demon King Serafall, your anger won out. You couldn't recognize an Iris that looked similar to a Demon King.”

She was supposed to be the light of humanity, a bright beacon of hope, but it turned out she was as human as the rest of us. I licked my lips. How cute.

Eden fell on her butt in a panic. I didn’t let her escape. I sat on her stomach and pinned her to the ground. Her weak attempts at dislodging me failed to budge me. The feeling of power this body held over her was intoxicating. 

My black hair spilled on her face as I leaned forward and looked her in the eyes. My small hand cupped her cheek. Eden froze.

“Relax. Your feelings aren’t a big deal. You hate me and I hate you. That is a perfectly normal relationship between a Hero and a Demon King.”

I could never win against her in the past, but things were different now. I was a Demon King. Naturally, the darkness of a Demon King was the only thing that could rival the brilliant light of a hero.

“It is impossible for me to hate Iris!”

I chuckled at her silly words.

“Do your best to keep me entertained like this and perhaps I might reward you.”

“Reward?”

My smile deepened at the hint of hope in the hero’s voice.

“Perhaps something like this..?”

I brought my face closer to hers and deactivated [Key of Destruction]. My appearance returned to that of Eden’s precious princess. The feeling of unmatched power left me. It was like somebody had dumped a bucket of cold water on me.

…What was I doing?

I reexamined the situation. The hateful hero was underneath me with a brilliant red blush on her cheeks. I was sitting on top of her with a hand cupping her left cheek. My lips were only a breath away from hers. To make matters worse, Eden had closed her eyes and puckered her lips.

I did what any reasonable human being would do if they suddenly found themselves in my situation.

“Sorry, my bad.”

I quickly got off of Eden and retreated to the safety of my computer chair. I heard Eden get up. I didn’t know what kind of expression she was making because I was too embarrassed to look at her.

A strange silence fell over the room, one that neither of us was willing to break. Seconds dragged on. The awkward silence quickly became unbearable. I peeked at her from the corner of my eyes. She was twirling her silver hair with her finger, a sure sign of her nervousness. I calmed down at the sight of her familiar behavior.

Even if our appearances had changed, who we were hadn’t changed at all. Fighting a Demon King together in a virtual world and waking up as our game characters changed nothing between us. The girl in front of me wasn’t a hero. She was only an intruder. Why did I have to be nervous about someone that was intruding on my personal space?

Nothing had changed. I repeated that thought to myself.  This entire series of events changed nothing. The two of us would go about our daily lives exactly the same as before, only with slightly different appearances. No doubt, my shitty father would bug me from time to time, but life would continue like normal.

This was the end of my promise to play as a healer. As such, there was no reason to allow her to intrude on my space any longer. A phone rang before I managed to kick her out of my room. MY intruder walked over to my bed and answered her phone. A loud, panicked voice resounded through the silent room.

“Eden, it’s bad!”

“Calm down, Athena. Did you wake up as your game character too?”

“No! I mean, yes, but not that. Look outside!”

“Hmm?”

MY intruder opened the blackout curtains in my room. The bright light of the sun blinded my eyes, causing them to take a moment to adjust.

“It’s real!”

“What is real, Athena?”

My eyes adjusted to the bright sun and I peered out the window with MY intruder. Everything was the same as usual, with one exception. A white tower had suddenly appeared on the horizon.

“The Tower of Yg! It appeared in the real world!”

...Ah, I could hear the sound of my normal, everyday life shattering into pieces.