The stone chamber grew tense as Oyamada's shouts echoed, his rage undimmed. "Different world? Stop joking! It's boring, and cold!" The goddess Vysis, unfazed, signaled her soldiers with a cool glance, her golden eyes steady beneath her tiara.
A man in tattered clothes, chained and trembling, was shoved forward by soldiers. Behind him, a three-eyed wolf with wine-red fur and a rough collar prowled, leashed by a burly guard. A girl's trembling finger pointed, not at the man, but the beast. "Such a creature doesn't exist in your world, does it?" Vysis asked calmly.
"It's fake! Papier-mâché!" Oyamada spat, but Vysis's gaze silenced him. The wolf growled, lunging at the chained man. "No—stop!" he screamed, but the beast tore into him, blood pooling as screams filled the air. A boy vomited; girls wailed, "What was that? CG? An illusion?"
Vysis raised her arm, a magical array flaring before her. "Holy Flame of Vysis, burn this demon!" A white fireball engulfed the wolf, reducing it to ashes in moments. The burnt-meat stench choked the room. Boys whispered, "That's magic, right?" "Sorcery!" "It's real. Too real." Some felt a thrill, escaping their mundane lives; others sobbed, overwhelmed.
Zakurogi stood slack-jawed, like a stunned statue. Kirihara, surprised but unshaken, watched intently. Oyamada, mortified, grappled with the undeniable reality. Sogou, sweating and trembling, comforted crying classmates, her class president's duty holding her together despite her fear.
The Takao sisters remained eerily composed. "This is another world, perhaps another planet," Hijiri mused. "Accept reality, analyze, secure safety." Itsuki nodded, "Aneki's incredible." Their calm felt otherworldly, unshakable. Yasu, oddly, seemed perplexed yet faintly amused, his lips curling slightly.
"Follow Goddess-sama's words!" Zakurogi urged, waving a metaphorical white flag. The man's corpse and wolf's ashes were cleared, replaced by a pedestal bearing a waist-high crystal. Vysis instructed us to touch it in turn, saying it would measure something vital.
The class hesitated, still reeling from the violence. Sogou, steadying her breath, stepped forward first, her hand hovering over the crystal. Kirihara watched, arms crossed, while Oyamada muttered, "This better not be another trick." The soldiers' stern gazes urged compliance, and I, Mimori Touka, felt the weight of this strange new world pressing down.
What did the crystal measure? Power? Worth? Our fate? Vysis's serene smile offered no answers, only a promise of revelations to come.