Then all of a sudden, something could be heard. Noen jumped up and looked out the window. Five large black helicopters with the US flag were approaching the magical beast from below, just a bit above sea level.
"Finally they're here!" Noen said.
The helicopters circled the beast. It watched them, confused, and suddenly tried to swat one of the helicopters out of the sky with its massive hand. But the pilot was able to dodge upward just in time. The rear hatch of the lead helicopter opened. A man in black gear held onto a bar and looked out.
"Attack on 3! Get ready."
Several people in the helicopter prepared to jump. "3... 2... 1... GO!"
Everyone jumped out of the helicopters at the same time; only the pilots remained. They all opened their parachutes and landed on the beast's leg. Noen pressed his nose against the window. "Are they stupid? Do they want to die or what?"
After landing, they began attacking all areas of the legs in groups, hoping to force it to fall over.
"The thing is just standing there, totally chill, in the middle of the sea," Ignaz said, surprisingly calm. "That thing is mega massive. Although I still don't know where we actually are..."
He kept staring, his eyes darting across the horizon. "Cars?"
He jumped up and ran toward the mangled entrance of the plane to verify what he was seeing. Heavily armored vehicles were speeding across the surface of the water, heading straight for the monster. Noen rubbed his eyes vigorously. "Ignaz, do you see that?"
"See what?" Ignaz stood up and followed the line of Noen's pointing arm.
"Look! I knew the government would come—"
"That's not what I mean!" Noen shouted. "Look at them! They're driving on water!"
"Water?" Ignaz asked, sounding completely bewildered. "What water?"
Noen whipped his head around. "We're in the middle of the ocean, can't you see them?"
"I have no idea what you're seeing, Noen. You should probably sit back down," Ignaz said, lowering himself back into his seat.
Noen looked on in shock. "You literally just said a few moments ago that you didn't know where we were! The island?"
"What are you talking about, Noen?" Ignaz asked, looking at him with genuine concern. "We crashed here in the town of Derby Line, right on the border of Canada in the USA."
Noen looked back at the scene outside. He clearly saw cars driving on water, but as he looked closer, he saw something even stranger. "People? Why are there people walking on water?"
He saw crowds being evacuated and heard the distant, muffled noises of things he couldn't even see. Noen crouched down, clutching his head. He looked up at the sky, and it looked like it was... clashing. It was a wild, distorted mix of a city skyline and an open sea horizon. He couldn't trust his own eyes.
"There! Look right there!"
"Noen, calm down!" Ignaz snapped. "The beast is on the other side of the city. There's no reason to panic."
"Then why aren't we just running?" Noen asked desperately.
Ignaz looked up, his expression blanking for a second. "True... what are we even still doing here?" He started thinking intensely, his brow furrowing as if his own thoughts were becoming hostile. "What..."
Ignaz stood up abruptly. "Why are we here? Everyone, get out and find cover!"
Suddenly, as if a spell had been broken, all the passengers wondered why they had stayed in the wreckage in the first place. They scrambled toward the exit and ran out. Noen could hardly believe his eyes. They were all running away—stepping directly onto the water as if it were solid ground.
Then, Noen saw the surface of the water glitch for a split second, flickering like a broken monitor.
"W-What?"
Some were still in the plane, right in the middle of rushing out, but Noen stood firmly in front of the exit. "You need to explain to me right now, why..."
A woman ran toward him in a panic and... straight through him. Noen recoiled in total shock. He continued to block the exit, but the rest of them... they just ran through him like he wasn't there. Noen spun around, watching the people sprint away across the surface of the sea.
"W-What are you doing?!" Noen screamed. No answer.
Noen clutched his head. One passenger was still left in the aircraft, frantically searching for a wallet he had dropped. Noen walked up to him. "Sir, what are you doing?"
No answer. The man sighed, voice trembling. "Shit, shit! All my savings for my trip!"
"I can help you—" Noen started, reaching out, but the man ran right through his chest and out the door.
Noen stood completely still. He looked down at his hands, then touched the cold metal of the fuselage, the seats, the walls. Everything felt solid to him. He looked outside again. To his eyes, they were still in the middle of the open ocean. He saw people appearing and disappearing out of thin air. Sometimes the massive Beast was visible, flickering like a dying lightbulb; sometimes it wasn't.
Noen stepped onto the ice stairs Olivia had made and took a trembling step toward the water. "That girl's powers... they're suddenly gone too, only the stairs are here.." he whispered.
He stepped off the last ice block, landing in... the water.
He watched people sprint past him, their feet hitting the surface of the waves as if it were a paved street, screaming in terror. Noen was genuinely terrified now, his mind failing to process the logic of it.
"W-What is going on here?" he asked himself, his voice shaking.
Noen turned back toward the plane, his breathing shallow and ragged. He scrambled back up the icy stairs , his hands slipping on the frozen surface as he fought his way back into the hollow safety of the fuselage.
"M-Make it stop!" Noen choked out, pressing his hands against his head and curling into a ball on the floor. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the impossible sights.
Suddenly, his system interface popped up, glitching more violently than ever before. The blue light flickered and distorted, barely holding its shape as the text finalized.
[Next Destination: Bloodtide Isle]
[Warning: This is a Mandatory Scenario.]
[Failure to complete = Immediate Death.]