Val Vorkard didn't get hit by a truck. He didn't save a child from a speeding car, and he certainly didn't die of overwork at a black company.
He was just… sitting there.
One second, he was in his bedroom, the blue light of his monitor reflecting off his glasses as he scrolled through a forum. The next second, the air in his room cracked. It wasn't a sound; it was a sensation, like the pressure of a deep ocean suddenly crushing his skull.
A hand—no, a claw made of shadow and starlight—had reached out of a tear in reality, wrapped around his waist, and yanked him through.
Now, he was face-first in the dirt.
Val coughed, spitting out grit that tasted like copper and ash. He pushed himself up, his limbs trembling. The air here was heavy, thick with a static charge that made the hair on his arms stand up.
"Where..." Val wheezed, wiping his mouth.
He looked up.
The sky wasn't blue. It was a bruising, violent violet, scarred with streaks of crimson lightning that made no sound. The landscape around him was a graveyard of jagged black rocks and twisted, leafless trees that looked like clawed hands reaching for the heavens.
Where the hell am I?
BOOM.
The ground jumped. Val lost his footing and fell back onto his ass.
BOOM.
Something was walking. Something big.
Val scrambled backward, his heels digging into the dead soil. He looked toward the horizon, and his breath died in his throat.
Rising over a ridge of black mountains was a creature that defied logic. It was a wolf, but to call it a wolf was like calling a hurricane a breeze. It was colossal, its shoulders brushing the low-hanging clouds. Its fur was a shimmering, metallic silver that seemed to absorb the violet light of the sky. Nine massive tails swayed behind it, each one long enough to crush a city block.
It wasn't just a monster. It was a natural disaster given flesh.
And it was looking right at him.
Val froze. Every instinct in his human brain screamed at him to run, to hide, to dig a hole and die. But his legs wouldn't move. The pressure radiating from the beast was physical. It was like gravity had increased tenfold.
The giant wolf lowered its head. Its eyes—two burning pools of molten gold, each the size of a house—narrowed as they focused on the tiny human speck.
"FINALLY."
The voice didn't come from the air. It exploded inside Val's mind, a telepathic roar that made his nose bleed.
"FRAGILE. SQUISHY. BUT... DENSE."
The wolf took a step closer, closing the distance in a single stride. A gust of wind from its movement nearly blew Val away. He shielded his eyes, looking up at the muzzle that blocked out the sky.
"What... what are you?" Val managed to shout, though his voice sounded pathetic against the wind.
The beast snorted, a sound that rattled Val's ribcage.
"I AM FERRER. AND YOU, HUMAN, ARE LATE."
"Late? Late for what?"
"FOR THIS."
The wolf lunged.
Val screamed, throwing his arms up as if that would stop a mountain-sized jaw from snapping him in half. But the teeth didn't close.
Instead, a massive tongue, rough like sandpaper and hot as a furnace, swept over him. It wasn't an attack. It was... a taste test?
Then, a searing pain erupted on Val's right hand.
"Argh!" Val clutched his wrist. A golden light was burning into his skin, searing a complex, tribal tattoo of a wolf's head onto the back of his hand.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[Soul Resonance Detected.]
[Pact Initiated: The World Eater, Ferrer.]
[Host Compatibility: 100%.]
[Pact Sealed.]
The pain vanished as quickly as it had arrived, replaced by a surge of power. It felt like sticking a fork into a nuclear reactor. Energy flooded Val's veins, hot and intoxicating. He gasped, his vision sharpening. He could see the dust motes in the air. He could hear the heartbeat of a lizard three miles away.
The giant wolf pulled back, looking satisfied.
"GOOD. THE ANCHOR HOLDS. YOU DID NOT EXPLODE."
"Explode?!" Val yelled, scrambling to his feet. He felt lighter now. Stronger. "You dragged me to another world to see if I'd explode?"
"I NEEDED A MASTER," the voice in his head said, sounding almost bored now. "MY POWER IS TOO GREAT FOR THIS REALITY. WITHOUT A SOUL ANCHOR TO GROUND ME, I LEAK MANA UNTIL I SLEEP. YOU ARE MY BATTERY, HUMAN."
"I'm a battery?" Val looked at the tattoo on his hand. "So I'm your pet?"
The wolf let out a huff that might have been a laugh.
"NO. IN THIS PACT, YOU ARE THE MASTER. BUT THIS FORM... IT IS INCONVENIENT FOR TRAVEL. AND IT SCARES THE PREY."
The massive silver wolf began to glow. The light was blinding, turning the dark wasteland white. The silhouette of the mountain-sized beast began to shrink, collapsing in on itself, condensing all that power into a smaller and smaller point.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Val shielded his eyes.
"Adapting," a new voice said.
This voice wasn't in his head. It was spoken aloud. It was rich, velvety, and dripped with a sultry confidence that made Val's heart skip a beat.
The light faded.
Standing where the giant wolf had been was a woman.
She was tall, with wild, waist-length silver hair that floated as if underwater. Her skin was pale and flawless, glowing faintly in the twilight. She wore an outfit that looked like it was made from the same midnight leather and silver fur as her beast form—a primal, ragged top and a loincloth-style skirt that did absolutely nothing to hide her dangerous curves.
Her thighs were thick and powerful, her waist snatched, and her chest... generous enough to cause back problems for anyone who wasn't an ancient entity.
She opened her eyes. They were the same burning gold as the wolf's.
She walked toward Val, her hips swaying with a hypnotic rhythm. The ground didn't shake anymore, but Val's knees definitely did.
She stopped inches from him, towering over him slightly. She smelled like wild rain and ozone. She reached out, taking his chin in her hand, her nails sharp enough to draw blood but gentle enough not to.
"Better?" she purred, a smirk playing on her lips. "I kept the parts I thought you'd like."
Val blinked, trying to process that this bombshell was the kaiju that just nearly crushed him. "You... you're Ferrer?"
"In the flesh, Master," she teased, tracing a finger down his chest. "Now, pick me up."
"What?"
"I used a lot of mana to summon you and transform," she said, draping her arms around his neck and leaning her full, soft weight against him. "Carry me. We have a world to conquer, and I don't like walking."
Val instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist and under her knees, lifting her up (bridal style). She was surprisingly light, or maybe he was just that much stronger now.
Ferrer rested her head on his shoulder, her golden eyes gleaming dangerously as she looked out at the desolate wasteland.
"Welcome to Aethelgard, Val," she whispered against his ear. "Try not to die. It would be very inconvenient for me to find another one."