I shoved the eggs into Ivy's arms and screamed "RUN!" and of course we ran.
We sprinted, no hesitation, no looking back, though technically that only applied to me.
Ivy tried to keep up, tiny legs pumping like a penguin fleeing a tsunami, wailing "AH— AHJUSSI! WAIT M—" before I scooped her up mid-sprint like she weighed nothing, because she basically didn't.
She gasped, delighted despite the chaos, "AHJUSSI!! BRIDAL CARR—"
And I cut her off flat: "No. This is EVACUATION, dumbass," slinging her over my shoulder like a sack of talking potatoes and pushing my legs harder.
Behind us, the cashier jogged along at first, weirdly calm, muttering to herself like she was reciting a bedtime story she'd heard a hundred times— "Ah… this again… same dream. Portal, monster, customers screaming… but different customers this time since it's Mr. Si Hon, huhk TUAH?" Okay what the fuck… author?
Right up until the ground trembled and the parking lot lights burst one by one down the row.
She froze mid-step, turned slowly, and watched the actual portal tear open, electricity crackling white-hot in the air, a massive claw ripping straight through reality like a wet paper.
Her face went pale, the exact color of someone realizing their nightmare had just run for early arrival. "Wait. Wait. WAIT—"
She dropped the groceries— nooooo, my eggs, my poor eggs— and took off sprinting faster than any of us, screaming "This isn't my dream... This isn't MY DREAM...! SIR PLEASE WAIT FOR ME—"
While I panted out"Is she an athlete…?" and even Vesper, jogging gracefully beside us like a goddess who'd forgotten she hadn't exercised in ten thousand years, looked genuinely impressed… though, I'm still focused on my EGGS…
We hit the far end of the lot after what felt like hours but was probably 3 minutes, my lungs already filing a formal complaint.
I dropped to my knees, set Ivy down— she panted like a puppy despite having done zero percent of the running— and rounded on Vesper with what little breath I had left.
"You… said the dungeon, portals, system, whatever BS…" Deep inhale. "…was supposed to start in three days…!!!?????"
She nodded, serene as ever. "Indeed, you're correct."
I pointed at the glowing tear hanging over a CU convenience store, complete with a bonus bigass claw reaching through it. "It's been ONE. DAY."
Vesper stared at the portal, then at the claw, then finally whispered, horrified, "…Si Hon. Mortal schedules are… regrettably flexible."
"VESPER, I SWEAR TO GOD—" I don't even know what you're saying anymore, those aren't real words, stop being ancient at me right now….
The roar came next, thunderous, rolling out from the portal like the sky itself had been punched.
Ivy clung to my shirt, the cashier shrieked somewhere in the background, and Vesper stepped in front of us without a trace of her usual glow or grin— just wind whipping around her, sudden and sharp.
"Stand behind me, and do not waver, you three," she commanded, voice dropping into something older, heavier.
Then she raised her chin toward the tear and let the full weight of her titles roll out: "Whatever dares manifest from yon portal shall be smitten by me. Vesper Aurelia Evernight Moonfall the Fifth, Slayer of Beasts, Breaker of Realms, Ruler of the Divine Palace—"
I opened my mouth, ready to clown her for the theatrics, and then stopped, because for the first time since I'd met her, she didn't sound dramatic.
She sounded serious. Deadass serious.
She thrust her hand toward the portal and started chanting.
"Ahjussi, Vesper's doing something!" Ivy whispered or screamed? I don't know… but her eyes was huge.
"Explode," Vesper muttered.
Nothing happened.
Total silence, except for 3 very confused faces blinking at her.
She lowered her hand slowly. "A… a moment, if you please… my divine power… refused to answer me."
And that was exactly when the portal decided to tear wider, and the first claw shoved through— black, scaled, cracked down the middle with red light leaking out like something inside was trying to escape its own skin.
A second claw followed.
Ivy squeaked, "Ahjussi, it has hands!!! TWO BIG HANDS—"
And I corrected her on reflex, "THAT'S CALLED A PAW, by Google,"
Which earned me a horrified stare and a;
"AHJUSSI YOU'RE TALKING LIKE THE AUTHOR!!!" that I chose not to examine too closely.
Then the head pushed through, and I finally understood why Ivy looked like she wanted to evaporate.
A wolf skull draped in dragon-scaled skin, patchy fur clinging to the wrong places, and eyes— so many eyes, blinking out of sync across both cheeks, the forehead, the jaw, spots that had no business growing eyes at all, even along its eyebrows.
"That's disgusting as hell," I muttered, and every single one of those eyes snapped open at once and locked onto us.
It took its first breath— a wave of heat that bent the air, thick dark smoke curling off its jaw like a poisoned fog and the cashier went down like a puppet with cut strings, sobbing into the pavement, "OoOoOH HELL NO! That thing was NOT in my dream," dissolving into hiccupping little cries of someone waking me up.
The beast dragged itself fully out of the tear— 6 meters of wrongness, wings folded tight against a body too long and too big to be a wolf's, glowing cracks pulsing along its hide like a heartbeat.
Tudud… tudud… tudud… Each footstep split the asphalt.
Ivy grabbed my leg so hard I felt her nails through the fabric. "Ahjussi… it's looking at us…"
Every eye had turned our way.
Vesper stepped forward again, empty-handed, voice low but rock-steady: "Behind me. You stand before a Corrupted Beast— a wretched, malformed thing, birthed from mana that has lost all reason… pretty much, a failed experiment."
"FAILED?!" I shouted. "THIS is what failure looks like?!" and Ivy tugged at my sleeve, already backpedaling.
"AHJUSSI, RUN!!! Let's do RUN PART TWO!!!" The beast inhaled again, and this time the roar that came out crushed the air itself, sucked the breath clean out of my lungs, rattled every light pole still standing and shattered what windows the first blast had spared.
And that's when Lila stood up.
Not screamed. Not ran. Just stood, wiped her tears off with the back of her sleeve like she was clocking back in for a shift she never wanted, sniffled once, and stepped in front of all 3 of us like she owned the parking lot.
I grabbed Ivy up into my arms on instinct. "HEY!"
She raised one finger without even looking back. "Shh. Let me think."
The beast roared again— "GRAWR~" cracking the ground wider, and Lila just kept staring at the portal like she was reading a menu she'd already memorized.
"…This isn't my dream. Different setting. Different monster. Mr. Si Hon is not supposed to be here."
She inhaled slowly, turned to face us, and her whole demeanor shifted into something calm. Serious. "It's fine."
"…What?!"
"Relax," she said, flat as ever. "Don't run. Don't scream. Don't breathe too loud."
Vesper snapped at her, indignant. "Madam Lila, that abomination shall rend us limb fro—"
"Nope." Lila held up the same finger. "Trust me."
She turned back to the beast, calm as a woman waiting for a bus. "…Something always takes it."
Dead silence.
Even Ivy stopped shaking long enough to whisper, "Take what…?"
"The monster."
Even the beast tilted its head sideways, confused, letting out a lopsided "RADAMN!" that somehow sounded almost insulted.
Lila just nodded once. "Just watch."
For a second, nothing happened. The beast's claws twitched against the cracked asphalt, six meters of nightmare frozen mid-step like it, too, was waiting for something to happen.
Ivy peeked out from behind my arm, one eye squinted shut. "Ahjussi, is she insane…?"
"I mean," I whispered back, "at this point I wouldn't rule it out."
Vesper hadn't lowered her stance, wind still curling around her sleeves, but even she'd gone quiet, watching Lila with the wary respect of someone who'd just realized the mortal in flip-flops might know something the ancient deity didn't.
***
Lila... I just wanna say that I'm gay... Like the new rewrite? Kekek