Nobody could move.
Neither the king on his throne, his soldiers, nor even the court mages. Not even the king's advisor, who'd lived for over thousand years. Everyone saw that figure and was drawn in, absorbed in its presence and yet drowned in utter fear.
Her long, fluttering hair was the color of gold that formed into a long braided. Her eyes, which seemed to see through everything, were an ice-like blue. Covering her fair white skin was a majestic black dress and a cloak of orange.
Her appearance was so beautiful, symmetrical, and flawless it made one realize the difference between them and perfection, going as far as to result in feelings of misery.
And peeking out of her cloak was proof of being one of the flugels while at the same time being the taboo of the same race: large, pitch-black wings.
As if a true king had just returned, people bowed their heads in fear. They could not raise their heads. They could not face forward. Knees shaking, they assumed the position of a retainer welcoming their master home, heads stuck to the ground.
She was the perfect example of a king whose presence commanded the space around them, prompting people to prostrate themselves just by standing there.
She had the presence and dignity of a supreme ruler, one that would brook no argument, as well as the dress of a leader.
And in the center of that whirlpool…
The black winged girl who forced all the people in the castle to prostrate themselves, who gained total control of the place without lifting a finger, smiled silently and thought:
What the hell! Some people I don't know are bowing to me. What is this? A prank? What should I do? Just how did all this happen? Someone, please help me!
It wasn't anyone else, but her, who was most confused in that situation.
***
Why is this happening to me?
That's probably first in the order of things I should explain. But, there's something I should say before that.
My name is Naruko. And I'm just a girl. A perfectly healthy, normal, everyday high school girl living in Japan. With that as a premise, I'd like you to listen.
First… let's see.
I was playing a game, just like usual. That game being Xgate Online.
Xgate Online was an online game that got released in 2025, and this year was their 6th anniversary.
Apparently, it was based off of a family-friendly, orthodox RPG set in Midgar, a fantasy world of swords and magic, which got turned into a tabletop RPG before having that turned into the online game we have now. Unfortunately, I never had the original console, so I never played the original game.
…No, well, I had considered buying it. The console was called "Dreamstation," or "Dreast" for short.
But the Dreast was a console from twenty years ago; it was really hard to find. There exposed immediately and ostracized and hated just as fast.
There was also one more selling point to this game. The "Story System."
It was a system that partnered with the internet's largest novel-submission site, where the things that players did in-game got turned into official canon in the form of a novel.
"I started a war for this reason."
"We went through this much trouble to finish a quest."
Send those things in to the official site, and anything they accepted would get displayed on the official homepage.
If you paid money, you could get even small events made into a story, so everywhere in Xgate Online was a story, and the players were all the main characters. And large, critical events were turned into stories free of charge.
My character, Lunaru Fenris, became a semi-official character that all the players knew. She'd destroyed and taken over many enemy states and was the first character since the game started to combine the entire world into a single country and reign over it as the Black Empress.
Lunaru Fenris, the Black Angel of Death, the Blackbird of Doom.
That's right, once I managed to take over the world I found my country and empire—Zodiac. As one would expect, I couldn't take over the official last boss, the Grimm King, his minions, but everyone other than the free players became citizens under Lunaru Fenris.
The above event was treated grandly by the above Story System, and people started saying a lot of different things about Lunaru Fenris. If I remember right, they were things like, "You're a wild last boss," or "Geez, why don't you just become the last boss?" But then, a problem happened.
A unified world was, honestly, not fun game-wise. It was a waste of a fun mechanic in the War System, and made it harder for new players to make their own new countries. So, I consulted with the other seven high-level players, and we agreed on holding a player-created event.
We contacted a famous novelist on the site and had him create a new "crux of history." The story went like this:
The world was invaded by the Black Empress Lunaru Fenris and unified through force.
However, the Seven Maidens of Midgar rose up.
Even while being ruled, they waited for a chance, and along with others who agreed, they stood against the root of evil, Lunaru Fenris, in rebellion! Oh, great heroes of Midgar. Such bravery is true nobility!
Now, drag the Black Empress who exploits tyranny to no end down from her throne!
Yeah, I'm straight-up the bad guy.
Essentially, we split the world into two forces: the Zodiac's Army led by Lunaru Fenris, and the Army of Justice led by Erza Belserion. Then, we proceeded to leave the official last boss in the dust as we held the biggest battle in the history of the game by ourselves.
So to spoil the conclusion for you, I lost. I mean, basically all the most powerful players were on the other side! As if I could win.
But I still tried my best. By the time I noticed, I was already alone, but I still rampaged as hard as I could.
I used my racial skill to neutralize all the weak players, around 80% of them, and did my absolute best and managed to take it to a one-on-one fight with Erza.
…Well, at that point my HP was already dipping past the 20% line, though.
Yeah, it was over in one hit.
I made the first move and managed to bring her HP down to 0 once, but she used the skill "Climax," something totally for main characters, to revive herself and win a miraculous come-from-behind victory. At least, that's how she played it.
I mean, she definitely took that last attack on purpose.
After getting hit by Erza's, and the rest of heroes's, ultimate moves in a show of complete overkill, I was subjected to a subspace seal (a magic spell that exiles someone or something into subspace, or so the flavor text goes). It even came with the description: Finishing an enemy with this will extend the time it takes for them to revive.
Please stop! I'm already out of HP! Well, I didn't like the idea of getting wrecked without even saying anything, so before I was completely gone I even tried to roleplay, saying, "Well done, heroes of Midgar! You have done a wonderful job surpassing us! If it's with all of you, you might be able to win, even against that detestable Grimm King!" …Yeah, uhhh… I was young.
Just like that, Lunaru Fenris lost, and the world was freed from her grasp.
That was how the end of the story went.
The reactions to it were really good. Enough that people said things like, "Like, this can just be the real ending," "That was a good last episode," "Hey, don't forget about the Grimm King (lol)!" "Grimm King? Oh yeah, the one that hid until Naru was dead. Uhhh, what was his name again?" and "Lol, that's way too cruel." It was big enough that it basically sparked an internet party.
Even though I lost, I still managed to complete a huge event and was satisfied with that. I was even grinning from ear to ear as I looked at the message boards.
So, when I tried to log in the next day, an unfamiliar character popped up on the screen.
Her full name was the Goddess of Love and Creation, Haru Heartfilia. In the story, she was the one who created the world of Midgar, and to put it bluntly, she was basically the avatar of the devs.
She was a cheat character that popped up during times like when a player logs in for the first time or during official events, and although she does have her stats set, they're so ridiculously high no one would ever be able to even think of beating her.
Like, what the hell? 999999999999999 health? Are you screwing with me? Even bosses don't go past a million in this game, you know?
So, the official cheater Haru appeared and said this to me: "I shall bestow upon you a new role."
I took this as some sort of message from the devs.
Right now, Lunaru Fenris was treated as a big boss character on the level of the Grimm King in Xgate Online. Of course, the game company wouldn't be able to ignore her, especially if the next day I tried to log in again after such a huge event like nothing had happened… yeah, I get it. Even I think it's kinda uncool.
I was thinking, like: If I just log in like this, what'll happen to the story if I just revive like nothing happened? So honestly, this was a godsend.
That's why I clicked the "Yes" option in response to the message.
I had no idea what kind of event it was, but I'd been getting through official events just fine up until now.
So whatever plan they have for me, bring it on, I say! With that thought in mind, then, my vision whited out.