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Transmission Initiated.
Recipient: NØΧUƧ
Classification: Irregularity.
Summary: Mortal soul exhibiting anomalous composure at termination event.
Observation request approved.
Deployment authorized.
POV: ████████████████
"How… interesting."
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POV: Noel
"Huh…?"
My vision swam, blurry and unfocused, like I'd just woken from the deepest sleep of my life. The ground beneath me was damp and uneven, seeping cold through my clothes. A chill breeze brushed against my face, carrying the scent of wet earth, moss, and something wild—sharp, almost metallic.
I pushed myself up slowly, my arms trembling a bit from the effort, and blinked hard to clear my eyes.
Trees. Towering, ancient ones, their branches weaving a canopy that filtered the sunlight into scattered patches on the forest floor. "Where… am I?" The words slipped out in a whisper, my voice sounding rough, unfamiliar even to me.
Memories crashed back in jagged fragments: the void, that eerie presence, the spinning wheel. Race. Boaz. I froze, my heart skipping a beat.
Slowly, carefully, I raised a hand to my head, fingers brushing against... fur? Soft, pointed ears twitched under my touch. I am no longer human... huh. I swallowed hard, my throat dry. "…Right."
I looked down at my hands. They were broader now, thicker across the knuckles, with a subtle coarseness to the skin. I curled them into a fist, testing the feel.
The movement was natural, but heavier, like there was more mass behind it. Spotting a fallen branch nearby, I tightened my grip around it—and it snapped with a sharp crack, far too easily.
I stared at the broken pieces in my palm, my breath catching. That shouldn't have happened. Not with my old strength.
I flexed again, slower this time, feeling the weight in my body. There was power there—unmistakable, but not overwhelming. Just... different.
I exhaled slowly, the reality sinking in like a stone in my gut. "I'm really not human anymore." And here I was, dumped in some unknown forest. DanMachi. That thing had said DanMachi. If I remembered right, it was that harem anime with dungeons, falna, levels—where the impossible became possible.
The protagonist, Bell, spent half the series running from everything, kind of a whiny mess at times. I sighed, shaking my head.
"…And I'm a hundred years before that?" I frowned, piecing it together.
Two possibilities: either a full century before canon kicks off, before Bell even sets foot in Orario, or maybe right around when he was born. That'd give me... what, a hundred and fifteen years? The whole story crammed into under a year—ridiculous pacing.
A hundred years was way too long to predict anything. Butterfly effect would screw it all up. For all I knew, snapping that branch could prevent some goblin from attacking one of Bell's ancestors... or get them killed instead. Murphy's Law didn't give a damn about timelines.
I let out a slow breath, pushing the thoughts aside. I'd worry about familias—Norse, Greek, whatever—politics, wars, and grand quests when they actually mattered. Right now? Survival.
I needed to get out of this forest. Bending down, I picked up a sturdier branch—not ideal, but it could serve as a makeshift staff or weapon. I dragged it against a nearby tree, carving a shallow mark into the bark. A path marker, just in case I circled back.
The sun hung high overhead—noon, maybe a bit past.
That gave me a few hours before nightfall, and spending the night out here unprepared? No thanks. Water first. Where there's water, there's life—tracks, signs, direction. Hopefully nothing too high on the food chain lurking nearby. I adjusted my grip on the branch, scanning the trees. "…I'm probably in a forest filled with bum-ass monsters, aren't I?" The air felt too still, too heavy. And somewhere deeper in the trees, something rustled.
Then I saw it: a rabbit. Small, white, with a single horn jutting from its forehead. "…Yeah. Of course." Another world, different creatures. It still looked edible, though. I took a cautious step forward, and it didn't bolt. I stopped, unease prickling my skin. "…Why isn't it running?"
The rabbit twitched, then hopped closer. Oh. That's not prey—that's a monster. My eyes darted to the ground, spotting a loose stone near my foot. I snatched it up. Fun fact: the human body's greatest weapon? Throwing. Even an average joe could hurl something fast; athletes, way faster. And I wasn't human anymore. I wound my arm back and let fly, channeling every ounce of this new body's strength.
The stone ripped through the air, connecting with a sharp crack. "Nice!" The horned rabbit flipped sideways and hit the ground hard, unmoving. "Light work, babyyy!" I approached carefully, heart pounding with a mix of adrenaline and triumph. Unconscious? Maybe dead. I exhaled slowly, remembering something from the show: monster meat was edible, technically, but it tasted like absolute crap and was usually toxic unless purified.
I glanced around the forest again—the trees, the oppressive silence, the fallen rabbit—and nodded to myself. "Yeah." I was officially in a monster-filled world. Now, how the hell do I escape?
Five hours later, I was sprinting for my life.
"Get me the fuck outta here!" Branches whipped against my face as I tore through the undergrowth, my lungs burning like fire, legs screaming in protest. Behind me? Not one goblin, not two—but four. And these weren't the ragged, half-starved scrubs I'd half-expected. No, these bastards had blades: rusty, jagged, but very real.
I risked a glance over my shoulder. Green skin, wide mouths stretched in feral grins, yellow eyes locked on me with predatory focus. They weren't charging wildly; they kept formation, spreading out slightly, cutting off my angles. One let out a sharp, shrill cry, and the others responded in kind. They were communicating. "They have swords," I muttered between ragged breaths. "Why the fuck do they have swords?"
Something whistled past my ear—a crude stone spear embedding into a tree trunk ahead. I veered left on instinct, heart hammering. Too slow, and I'm done. Trip once, and I'm finished. I leapt over a fallen log, nearly slipping on slick moss as my boots scraped for grip. They were gaining—of course they were. Shorter legs, lower center of gravity. This was their turf, not mine.
A branch snagged my shoulder, spinning me sideways. I stumbled, teetering on the edge of falling. "No!" I forced my balance back and pushed harder, mind racing.
Think. If I could break line of sight... Another shriek, closer now. Too close. Something sliced through the air near my back—I felt the wind of it brush my spine. One clean hit, and I'd be gutted.
My breath hitched, panic rising. Not calm, not philosophical—just raw, desperate survival. I pumped my legs harder than I ever had in my old life, crashing through brush, thorns tearing at my skin, lungs on fire. And then—water. A river, thank god. Rivers erode downward: waterfalls, cliffs. If I followed it long enough, maybe I could use a drop. Maybe?
Wait. No. That's stupid. That's suicidal. But the river curved sharply, and I followed it anyway, no choice. Branches snapped behind me, shrieks growing louder, closer. And then I saw it—not downstream, but right in front of me: a cliff. A sheer drop. A roaring waterfall plunging into white mist below. No way around. No time.
"…You've got to be fucking with me." I skidded to a stop at the edge, too fast, too sudden. The goblins stepped out from the trees, blades in hand, grinning, licking their lips. They didn't rush now—they knew I was cornered. One advanced slowly; another flanked left, cutting off any escape.
For a split second, a flash hit me: the old me. Lazy, comfortable, drifting through life. Waiting for things to happen, no effort, no drive. Just existing. If I froze here, that's who I'd stay. That's how I'd die. My hands trembled, heart slamming against my ribs. "I won't," my voice cracked, raw with defiance. "I won't be that guy any longer." That's my oath. I want to live.
The goblins lunged. I didn't think—I stepped backward and dropped. The world vanished into rushing white. Cold. Violent. The impact tore the air from my lungs. Water swallowed everything. Darkness rushed in.
And then... nothing.