Is this really a Game?!

Laura was teleported to a void, a place devoid of anything. She walked slowly and fearfully as the unfamiliar place scared her. A vast expanse of nothing was all she could see wherever she looked at.

[ An error has occurred, please finish the current area and understand your ability before proceeding towards the trial. ]

Laura was surprised by the notification. She thought that she would be able to take her time and unlock her ability at any time she deemed fit, for something like this to happen before the trial was worrying, to say the least.

[ Player has nothing to worry about, this is a sealed dimension where time runs differently compared to the outside, the player has all the time in the world to understand her ability. ]

Laura was once again surprised. It was a good thing that she had a lot of time, that was certain, but, how much time would she need exactly?

Suddenly she could see something. It was like a video being played, only that the video was something she remembered. Her mom. Her mother’s face was shown right in front of her as she was being cradled by her.

“Mom.” Laura looks at the familiar face as a sad smile shows on her face. Many more such memories were shown to her as she looked at them fondly while reminiscing. At one point she even closed her eyes but even then the memories were still visible to her. Even when looking away she was still able to see it.

The memories slowly passed as more and more were shown. Her mother, her father and even her siblings, an older brother and younger sister. They were a happy family, her brother was someone she looked up to and could tell even her deepest secrets to. Her little sister was a rebellious girl that always made problems but even then they all loved and cared for each other.

Laura’s father was an architect while her mom was an interior designer and they had their own company that made many houses. They were quite well off and each of them went to the best possible schools. Being children of such successful people one would think there was a lot of pressure on them to be successful as well but strangely it was not so.

Their parents valued them over anything and only wanted their children to be happy in life, success was important yes, but never over happiness.

They rarely fought and always made time to get together for a family dinner whenever they could. Her brother was engaged to a beautiful girl from the neighborhood. Everyone was happy as they came together for dinner in her memories. Suddenly Laura’s smile disappears as her eyes widen.

“No, please, please no.” She tries looking away and closing her eyes but it was to no avail. Her memories were flooding in and she was forced to look at them.

“Stop, please stop, please!” Laura shouts at the void as she looks at the faces of her family. Each of them was smiling as they were having dinner together. She was just telling her mom how she was doing great in university and that, while some exams were hard, it was nothing she couldn’t finish.

Her brother was talking about his new company as he was excited to start working there. Tomorrow was his first day and he couldn’t wait to go to the building and start. His fiancée teased him with a smile as they all laughed together.

Her sister was telling them about what university she was thinking of entering, everyone was staring at her as they never expected the rebel to suddenly start talking about such things.

“What, I can’t just rely on you two all my life, even I have some basic decency you know?” Her sister pointed at their parents as she spoke. Everyone had a warm smile on their faces as they looked at her. The little brat had grown up.

Suddenly.

[Earthlings, the time has come for change, please stay calm and wait for the terraforming process, everything will be explained during it]

Laura’s whole family was shocked as they all heard the voice. Looking at each other with confusion visible on their faces they were even more confused by a timer that could suddenly be seen in front of them.

[ 10 , 9 , 8 … ] 𝒷𝒹𝓸𝓿𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝓶

They all looked at the timer with confusion before it finally went down to 0. A bright light enveloped them all as they were suddenly transported away from Earth. They were all floating in space and looking at their planet that was now changing before their own eyes.

For Laura however, it was very different.

“Hmmm, a qualified specimen, I will enjoy taking over you.” Laura was a couple of meters behind her parents. She tried shouting at them as she could see another her with them. She was bound by dark-red chains as a demonic figure was coming close to her. Powerless to do anything to stop it, Laura was soon standing face to face with the ghostly being. It turned into smoke as it went inside of Laura’s body through her orifices.

Laura was suddenly shaken awake by her brother who was right next to her. She looked around herself with shock as she was listening to a cold voice explaining what was happening to the planet. Her brother was looking worriedly at her as she simply smiled at him, hoping he would not notice the enormous amount of fear in her eyes. He did notice it, however, but he simply took it as fear towards what was happening, it was every day you were told your planet was becoming bigger and that everything was going to change, he was quite shaken up himself as well. Laura was looking around, trying to find the demon she previously saw, but, there was nothing but people around her. Was it all an illusion, no, it couldn’t have been, it felt so real.

Whatever it was Laura knew that she had to be careful. After a while, they were all transported back to their home. They all scrambled to figure out what exactly was happening. As they looked out from the window they could see a scene that was similar to one from a nightmare.

A huge dragon could be seen passing above the city of Toronto. The dragon spewed flames from his mouth as buildings melted from the incredibly high heat. Roads cracked while people and monsters alike got roasted in seconds. The dragon was simply passing by and soon he was gone from the view of Laura and her family who lived in Yorkville.

Their surroundings had also changed. The nearby houses were further away while some of the many stores were completely gone. Big cracks could be seen on the ground while monsters were roaming the streets.

In the following month, Laura’s family went through an untold number of difficulties. Her brother and father took the role of protectors in the very beginning and had already leveled up a couple of times. Laura herself was holding a bow as she actually took archery classes when she was in high school. She aided her brother and father from behind as she gave it her best to attack the enemies.

Her mother, sister, and future sister-in-law were also holding knives as they were fully aware that a monster could pop out at any moment and attack them. They couldn’t simply rely on the two men in their family for everything.

One thing was worrying Laura, however. She had almost forgotten about the demon she had met in the beginning, but a couple of days ago she heard the familiar voice whisper in her head.

[ A bow, interesting choice Laura. ]

She was frozen in fear as she heard the demon. That was however everything the demon said and the rest of the day passed normally. Laura was truly beginning to think whether it was all something she made up in her head, alas reality was not that kind. Over the course of the next couple of days, the voice was becoming more and more frequent, and was always commenting about what was happening in Laura’s vicinity.

Words of praise were sometimes told from the demon, but they were always sarcastic of course. Most of the time the demon was telling Laura what it wanted to do with her family members, the words made her sick to her stomach as she gave it her all to endure and not let the others know.

Until.

One day, Laura and her family found an abandoned house that they were going to use as a shelter for the night. They rested, had a meal that they made over a fire they lit in the fireplace. Everything went well and the night was peaceful.

Until Laura woke up. She was standing in front of her brother’s bed. Her brother was convulsing as he held his bleeding neck while looking at her with disbelief. Laura was stunned by the scene as she looked down on her bloody hands. She was suddenly aware that she wasn’t moving her body. The demon could be heard again, laughing in her head as it moved her body to do unspeakable acts that night.

Her whole family was slaughtered by her hands, and she was forced to watch it happen. Her brother was alive while the demon killed his fiancé. She cut off her arms and legs and dangled her in front of him while laughing wildly. She cut open his stomach and planted his lover’s head inside of it while removing the intestines. He died before she was finished.

Her sister was sleeping in the same room as her. The demon came behind her and with a vicious blow snapped her spine. The poor girl couldn’t even utter a cry of pain as her eyes were gouged out and thrown away. The demon cut off her fingers one by one while clutching her neck, making sure the girl couldn’t make any noise.

Her parents were the last. Holding kitchen knives in her hand the demon stabbed through Laura’s father’s hands and legs, immobilizing him. She proceeded to spend the next 30 mins killing her mother in the slowest, most gruesome, and painful way possible. Her father’s sobbing and crying were drowned out by the painful cries of her mother as her skin was removed from her body. The flesh from her arms and legs was cut off and only bones remained.

Her father was mentally already dead when the demon came to him. His eyes were lifeless and without life. With disgust, the demon cut off his arm and left the house.

Laura had watched everything happen. In the following months, the demon had full control of her body as she wanted nothing more than to die. She gave the demon no resistance and simply waited for her days to end.

Until she met Reign and the others.