When he finally got to the pizzeria after walking for about half an hour, the sun had already set, making the streets nearly pitch black aside from a few streetlights and the glow of a full moon in the sky. Allen observed that the restaurant was kind of small and shabby as well as, much to his dismay, already closed. No lights at all shone from it and a giant "CLOSED" sign was placed in the front window plain to see.

  Allen sighed defeatedly.

  "I guess this is what I get for not checking what time it closed."

  He decided he would just come again another day and turned to walk away. That was when he heard a shriek ring out from nearby that froze him in his tracks. He looked around until he heard another shriek call out into the night. Now, almost regrettably, he was sure of where it was coming from, the alleyway right next to the store.

  Allen pulled out his phone to possibly call for help but all that showed on the holographic screen was static.

  'Dammit, this thing cost me too much to be glitching out at a time like this!'

  Allen looked back at where the sound had come from and was not sure what to do now, whether he should just run until his phone started working again or he found help, or try to intervene himself. He was about to choose the former when he heard another cry. Before he knew it, he had already run into the alleyway, but he was not able to see anything due to it being clouded in fog.

  He slowly and nervously stepped through the fog. The fog was surprisingly cold like he had just stepped into a wintry storm even though it was the middle of summer, but in only a few steps, he was already past it into a mostly empty alley with heavy mist inside of it. He was confused and not sure he had heard where the sound had come from correctly until he heard that same shrill cry come in front of him beyond the mist.

  He ventured outside of the mist to find himself in the open alleyway and a giant mural in front of him. It depicted a monstrous creature that resembled a tree in the form of a lion. It had a body made of bark and a mane of vines. It was so lifelike that it appeared the brick wall was a window instead.

  'That noise came from here. Was it some sort of illusion? For now, I might as well take a sketch of this and see if I can find out what it is later.'

  Allen, partially mystified by the mural's realism, began to draw the painting within his notebook. Drawing everything down to the tiniest detail. When he was almost finished, he found something was off between his work and the mural that served as its inspiration. Instead of looking sideways like he had previously seen, its eyes were now staring directly at him.

  'How did I get this so far off? My skills are subpar, but I'm not that bad." Allen spoke out loud. "It's almost as if it mov-"

  Allen could not finish his sentence before a mass of vine-like tendrils erupted from the mural and tried to entangle him. He leaped out of the way just in time and was horrified to see most of the monster's body bound from the wall as if it was completely natural. The only parts left inside were a large mass of the green vines that made up its mane.

  “What is going on!? This has to be some sort of illusion as well, right?!"

  Large thorn-like spikes began to emerge from the monster's body. Some were as long as Allen's arm and looked like they could pierce right through him as well. Allen's mind froze from bewilderment but his pencil started to move again, simply through instinct. The moment his hand started to draw, the monster halted in its tracks.

  "Huh? Oh, it didn't move while I was drawing did it?!" Allen grinned nervously and started to draw as if his life depended on it. Moments like this had overtaken him before, but this was the one rare time where it did. He kept on til it was a complete replica of the monster, but when he had done that, the beast began closing the distance once more.

  "Wait, no additions I'm making are affecting it. Damn it, maybe I can erase it and start-"

  Another volley of vines was unleashed toward him even more numerous and swift than before. Allen had no choice but to run away for the second time that day. The monster completely vacated the wall and chased after him. All of the remaining vines that had still been on the surface of the wall, were now outside of it. The young man headed back where he came from through the fog.

  After a few seconds, the fog faded around him and he noticed that the modern alleyways were replaced with walls bearing a resemblance to medieval architecture. This bizarre change in scenery only added to the intense confusion he was facing. However, he shook his head and kept on running with everything he had. That morning had been a cakewalk compared to this all-out sprint.

  The passage seemed much longer than it had been when he entered, but he still felt he could escape. The exit was in reach before his eyes before too long he thought, but someone else was there as well. A young woman with golden features from her hair to her clothes to even her skin. She looked like a princess straight out of a fantasy novel Allen had read. The golden dress she wore was in tatters and her golden complexion was marred by grievous wounds. It looked like she had been running from that monster too.

  'She must be who I heard those screams from earlier."

  Allen winced as he considered leaving them to fend for themself and hope for the best, but his conscience overrode his cowardice momentarily. When he passed her, he tried urging her to get up and follow him out.

  "C'mon, we have to get moving!"

  She didn't follow his directions. Instead, the golden woman looked back at where he had come and then somberly stared down at something she held in her arms. It was a gold sword with a branch-like handle, With both hands, she raised it up to Allen as if telling him to take it.

  "What is this? ...Is this what that thing is after? Is that why it chased you?"

  She nodded her head quietly and brought the sword closer to Allen.

  'Wait, is this meant for me to use?' Allen thought to himself while contemplating the situation. The fantastical idea of taking the golden armament and slaying the monster passed through his mind. The possibility that he had somehow stumbled into a magical realm where the normal rules of the world did not apply plagued his thoughts as well. Regardless if it was supernatural or not, that exquisite treasure was sure to open new doors for him.

  Confused but entranced, he reached out to that golden blade. Right before he could lay a finger on it, he noticed a slight change in expression from that mysterious sword-bearer.

  'Disappointment?'

  Vines shot through the golden woman's body and her form broke apart into mist. Allen screamed in shock as his limbs were ensnared so tightly he could not even move his fingers. He was brought to the ground to watch while that giant lion monster gradually approached him from the fog that had lied before Allen.

  Too stunned to even think, all his strength drained from him, and by this point, he could not even turn away from the monster as it was about to attack. With explosive power, the monster leaped straight towards Allen whose eyes were opened wide with terror.

  From out of nowhere, a figure slammed downwards on the monster stopping it in its charge.

  "Magical Kick Breaker!!!"

  The beast was crushed under the heel of that figure, causing it to splinter into chunks of wood and thorns. At that exact moment, the vines wrapped around Allen lost their hold. This left him there on his own as the clouds moved past in the sky and revealed a crescent moon shining up above and illuminating the alley enough for him to make out who had rescued him.

  "You..."

  Standing on top of the massive remains of the tree-like creature was the same peculiar young woman he had met earlier that day. She had a slight grin on her face as she recognized his face as if this was as normal as bumping past each other on the sidewalk.

  "Looks like you did need saving this time around.", she casually remarked.

  On the other hand, Allen's head was boiling over with so many questions he could not process them all. He only managed to voice two.

  "What's your name...Where are we?"

  She chuckled, "It's Nera and this is a place where counterfeit legends lead people to their deaths. Welcome to the Netherworld."

  "The Underworld? Are you saying we're dead? What the crap are you talking about?"

  The girl he now knew as Nera looked straight into his eyes with the same nonchalant demeanor as before. This unnerved him.

  "Did you happen to look at the moon earlier tonight? What shape was it?" she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

  "...Yeah, it was a full moon, What does that have to do with any-" His eyes widened at a sudden revelation as he looked up to the sky above. What he saw did not make any sense. There, shining brightly amongst the clouds, was a crescent moon. Allen could vividly remember seeing a full moon earlier that night and the moon was also half-full just a few days ago. Realizing this, Allen took her words more seriously for now and in a more relaxed tone asked her another question.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Alright, I guess I'll go along with us not being where I thought we were, so what did you mean by "Underworld", and what is this creature that tried to make a meal out of me? Is all of this just some sort of weird holographic projection or something?"

  "Nah, this is a part of the Underworld, an entirely different world where lost souls linger for a while. However, it occasionally leaks out into our world in different appearances like this, and living folks like us can sometimes wander into it as well. I'm telling you all of this so you can maybe avoid this happening again. I may be pretty awesome but I can't be everywhere at once."

  Allen ignored her bragging and responded, "So that creature was a lost soul?" He then faltered back as her expression suddenly darkened unexpectedly for a moment.

  "No, they're anything but lost souls, they're specters. Monsters of pure miasma that feed on both the souls of the dead and the living. Their entire bodies are capable of draining both the life and mana out of people." " she stated as she gestured to the remains of the "specter", a large pile of bark and vines she was currently standing on that were slowly disintegrating into dust.

  "Mana!? That means there's magic too, right?" Allen was a lot more eager to hear what she was talking about now.

  "So that's how you were able to jump off a building like it was no problem and take out that monster in one hit. You must be a mage or something." Allen could not help but grin at the thought that there may be mages in the world.

  'All of this is crazy, but if there's a way for her to teach me how to use something like magic myself it could be worth it," he chuckled creepily to himself. Images of him shooting fireballs out of his hands and levitating cars with his mind suddenly popped up in his head.

  "No, I can't use magic, and it's not something I can teach you how you use. You have to be born with it"

  Allen tensed up, "How did you know I was-"

  "It's written all over your face. When you've spent as much as time I've had looking at people's faces you get a knack for reading them. By the way, let's just say my abilities are more science-based and leave it at that. Knowing too much more will probably just cause you more trouble anyway."

  "Maybe I was right about the shock-absorption shoes then?"

  "Ah, I see," Allen replied in a completely disinterested tone.

  'if there's no way for me to learn how to use magic myself then it's definitely not worth enough for me to get involved with a strange girl who seems to fight freakish monsters on a regular basis. I'm just going to go home and disregard this as a weird dream brought on by exhaustion and hunger.'

  "Well, it was nice meeting you again," He proclaimed halfheartedly as he waved goodbye and walked away into the mist only to be eventually stopped by what felt like a brick wall made out of ice.

  "Ow!" He grabbed his nose in pain. He felt all over the fog and was bewildered to find that the mist itself was solid and there was no way for him to get through it.

  "Uhh..." He walked out of the mist sheepishly. "Could you explain to me how I can get the hell out of here?"

  Instead of answering him immediately, she walked over to one of the walls of the alley, slumped down onto the ground, and pulled out her earbuds and MP3 player from out of the pockets of her tracksuit.

  "There's no way for us to get out of here until the Underworld recedes, which it should soon now that the specter has been taken care of. In the meanwhile, I'm just going to listen to some music."

  Not convinced, he tried the other side of the alley only to be met with another icy barrier. He walked out of the fog and looked over to Nera listening with closed eyes. "Hey, you said Specters are soulless monsters, right? Do they have some connection to art, because the one that attacked me was a mural before it started moving and me drawing it kept it still."

  "Eh, you decided to draw in such a dangerous situation. You sure are passionate or an idiot."

  Allen opened his mouth to speak but she kept on going without giving him a chance to.

  "To answer your question, yes. With both being products of human imagination, Specters are tied to art. Specters will sometimes enter a sealed form as art like you saw before and can be kept immobile by drawing them before they are completely unsealed. You're lucky that you were able to stumble upon that trick."

  "...I see...name's Allen by the way." Allen rubbed the back of his hair in unease at the awkward introduction. "Oh, this is yours, right?!"

  The young man shakily said as he pulled out the odd piece of paper he had meant to give her back in the first place.

  "It's nothing, just something that caught my eye at a random shop," Nera said briskly with a wave of her hand and then became silent as she focused on the music she was listening to. In the face of the awkward silence, Allen looked at her device's digital display for any topic of conversation.

  "PANDEM?NI∩M, huh. I never heard of them before. Mind if I give it a listen to pass the time since my phone is completely on the fritz right now?"

  She silently reached for one of her earbuds, moving some of her hair out of the way causing Allen to catch a glimpse of her metallic ears. Besides their gray color and various grooves along them, they were perfectly identical to normal ones made of flesh and blood. Something so advanced it could probably only be found in Atelier City.

  'Prosthetics...that must be what she meant about reading faces," He wondered what exactly happened to her but decided to push these thoughts down and just listen to the music. It was an electronic rock band with a female vocalist. The singer had a hauntingly melodic voice and the song seemed to be about betrayal, deception, and corruption.

  As the song reached its conclusion, Allen thought out loud to himself, "It's strange how beautiful this song describes how crappy the world is."

  Nera opened her eyes for the first time since she started listening to her music in subdued surprise. "I guess I'm not the only one who can read minds."

  ***

  A little bit more time passed and they suddenly heard a whistle coming from the fog. Following this sound, two figures emerged from it. At first, they were vague silhouettes but gradually their forms became clear.

  The first was a tall man wearing a silver suit of knight armor and wielding a large weapon on his back. His armor was very angular with the front of his helmet being flat with dotted cut-outs on the lower half of it for ventilation.

  The second figure was a woman of average height dressed in a black hoodie and pants with white musical lines scrawled all across them messily. She whistled exaggeratedly as she twirled a small golden harp on her finger. Her nails were painted the same onyx color as the strings of her instrument.

  They both gradually got up to their feet and backed away from the fog as two figures.

  “Who are you guys?” Nera asked tentatively.

  “We should be asking you two that. We’re traversers, we came to deal with the specter that was here…” The mysterious woman glanced around, spotting the scattered remains of the monster that were lying around in the alley. “...but it looks like that was already taken care of.”

  “Yeah, by me.” Nera walked up to the gray-haired woman and pointed a thumb at herself for emphasis.

  “Oh, is that so?” The older woman then leaned in to scrutinize her more thoroughly before suddenly throwing her arm around Nera and smushing their faces against each other, much to Nera’s shock.

  “Aren’t you adorable!? It’s really impressive a kid like you can deal with a specter of that level. Without any scratches, at all, I might add too. You must be pretty talented. C’mon, tell me your name!” Nera let out loud protests and struggled to get out of the hooded woman’s grasp.

  While she fawned over Nera and he was unsure of what he was going to do, Allen was about to try to approach them but was stopped by a raised hand from the armored figure.

  “Don’t be alarmed. That’s just Madame Harpe’s way of showing affection," the man’s deep voice reverberated through his metallic helmet. He seemed much more composed and collected than his associate. Allen trusted in his words and stopped in his tracks.

  ‘This guy looks and sounds like he’s straight out of a medieval legend. And that armor he’s wearing is exquisitely cool. Are these guys like the guardians of the magical society Nera talked about earlier?’

  Nera eventually managed to escape with an exasperated sigh and a light blush on her face from embarrassment. She then angrily pointed at the woman Allen now knew as “Madame Harpe” and sharply rebuked them.

  “Mind my personal space you crazy-eyed lady! I don’t even know who you are, so don’t go breathing down my neck already! I’m not some pipsqueak you can smother to death!” Nera yelled this out loudly but was ignored by everyone else. Harpe only tilted her head to show any indication that anyone heard Nera.

  Allen spoke up. “You guys. Who are you supposed to be anyway? I know you called yourself a traverser but I have no idea what that means.”

  “Hmm, sounds like you don’t know much about anything, do you? Well, I wouldn’t mind informing you a little if that’s the case. For starters, I’m Harpe and my ally over there in the walking silver fortress is Hache.”

  Allen and Nera glanced over at the armored man called Hache and he simply nodded his head. They both wondered how these two started working together with them being polar opposites.

  Harpe then put her thumb to her chin and closed one of her emerald eyes in thought.

  “As for your second question, Traversers are pretty much the cleanup crew of the underworld to describe it in an unglamorous way. Our job is to traverse through its different spills and get rid of the trash known as “Specters” while clearing away the stains known as “miasma”. We even have a title to show for it."

  'There's really a title like that?'

  Harpe dramatically took a half-bow as if she was receiving a standing ovation.

  “You're welcome.”

  “If it was not for Traversers like Madame Harpe. The world would be overrun by those vicious beasts.” Hache proclaimed.

  “You too might be able to become one. I can help you both become Traversers.”

  “Really!?” Allen uttered in disbelief. He did not think his chance to have a huge breakthrough would come this unexpectedly.

  While he was sorting his thoughts out, Nera replied to Harpe. “Sorry, but if I was going to be a Traverser, I’d do it on my own terms.”

  Harpe took this nonchalantly and continued. “Too bad, there’s still the boy though. I’ll ask this first, have you ever been in a life-or-death battle before?”

  Allen was caught off guard by this question but eventually answered with a shake of his head.

  “I see, I guess neither of you would make good allies after all,” Harpe stated in mock somber. She then raised up with her back straight and her arms behind her back.

  “Hache,” Harpe uttered this one word so uncharacteristically serious and foreboding that it made the hairs on Allen’s neck stand up.

  “Why did-”

  Before he finished his sentence, Nera suddenly tackled him to the ground. Allen watched as if in slow motion as a silver ax swung through where he had been standing next to Hache not even a second prior.