Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

My eyes snapped open and I jumped out of bed, summoning my sword from my inventory I slashed in front of me and I felt as a powerful gust of wind came rushing out of the sword, sending a powerful wave of pressure that cut deep into the walls of my room. It took me a moment to realize there was no one else in my room.

I sat on my bed as I breathed heavily. "It was just another nightmare" I said.

For the past week I've been having nightmares about our time fighting the half-demons. I could count on one hand the amount of sleep I've been able to get. At least our bodies were stronger and didn't need as much sleep compared to before we were summoned.

I looked at my bed, considering if I should try to sleep once more but I got up and left my room. I wouldn't be able to fall asleep right away even if I wanted to. I left the building we were using as dorms. Contrary to one would imagine when they think about dorms in an isekai story, the building we were using didn't separate women from men. There wasn't the ideology that men were stronger than women and stuff here as the person with the higher level and higher status would be stronger no matter the gender. One thing I thank this system we were brought into.

I took a stroll in one of the gardens they have here in the capital of Dracius, Dracona. This city wasn't on the same scale as São Paulo, probably around one of the medium sized cities in my world, yet was on the larger side of the cities around here with both reasons being it's the capital and has the main building of the Church of Space.

I sat on one of the benches that overlooked a small pond that had a few duck-like creatures. They were all sleeping, it was probably three in the morning at the moment, but it was still nice to observe them as the cold clean air of the night cooled me and reinvigorated my tired mind.

I saw movement in the corner of my eyes, looking at it I saw it was just a cat person. Another thing that is different in this world than the usual isekai stories are the therians. Here they are literally humanoid animals where in general isekai they are "humans with ears and tails".

As the cat person approached I could observe their appearance better. It was a woman, I think… I'm not able to differentiate animal people face's. It resembled a snow leopard and was wearing a black suit with a multicolored shirt underneath it. I didn't know if that was considered classy in this world, but I was sure it wouldn't back on Earth.

She approached me, and I confirmed it was a woman, and sat next to me on the bench overlooking the pond.

"This is such a lovely evening, don't you agree?" She asked me without looking away from the pond. Her voice was a little forced, almost as if she was trying hard to be gentle.

"I… Yes. It is" I stumbled a little over my words.

"Do you have any reason to visit here at such hours?" She asked me.

"Just to cool my head, drive bad thoughts away. What about you?" I answered and then made the same question back at her. If she was going to strike a conversation, then I would do the same.

"I'm just walking. I saw someone interesting in my walk and decided to talk with him" She answered. I, somehow, felt like there was some form of hidden intention there, but it was just a hunch.

"Huh. What if the person is dangerous and tries to kill or kidnap you?" I questioned her lack of concern for her own safety, but instead of an actual answer she started to laugh, a genuine laugh that caught me off guard completely.

"Hahahahaha. Sorry, that caught me off guard. Never have I ever been asked this kind of question before, and it's amusing" She answered. What is the deal with her? Is she that high level that she isn't concerned by randons in the street? I know that I'm stronger than the general public, but there are people stronger than me around, a hidden wolf among sheeps.

"But to answer your question. I would like to see them try" She said with a devilish smile that sent shivers down my spine. That was the moment that I knew this woman next to me was the wolf I mentioned before.

"Ahahaha…ha. I see" I said. I was anxious now. What could she want with me? Did she really just find me on her usual walk?

"But tell me. You're one of those the church summoned. Aren't you?" She asked me so casually I started to answer her.

"I am…Wait. How do you know?" To my knowledge, the general public shouldn't know about the summoning ritual and only the people in power of this kingdom and in the Church of Space should know this information.

"Let's just say that I am very close to the head of the church" She said as she took a bottle of wine from out of nowhere. "Would you join me for a small drink? Don't worry, it's a low level wine"

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"I…Guess?" I shouldn't as I was still 17 years old, just one year below the drinking age of my country, but I didn't think she would take a no for an answer so I had no choice but to join her.

She passed me a delicate cup of glass that looked like it would shatter if I so breathed near it, but felt really resistant in my hands. Then she poured the wine into the cup, filling it halfway, then she did so for herself and then the bottle vanished to somewhere. If I didn't know any better, I would say she had an inventory like mine, but mine was a unique skill, so it was impossible.

I took a small sip of the purplish liquid and the moment it touched my tongue it was like an explosion of flavour had hit every taste bud of my tongue, and then some, with the most powerful and yet delicious. It resembled a mix of grapes and cashew somewhat. Even the usual flavour of alcohol was nowhere to be seen underneath this glorious mix of flavours.

"By the look on your face, I assume that you liked it" She said. I just nodded. "So. What are your thoughts about here? Do you and your friends like it, hate it?"

I paused. My thoughts were a bit complicated. I liked that I now had magical powers, if only by definition, but I disliked how we didn't have a say in the matter. I still wanted to go home to see my parents, to play games with Alex and…

My vision blurred and tears started to drop.

"I'll take it as a no" I heard her saying.

"No. It's not it" I said, rubbing my sleeve on my face to dry the tears off. "It's just that… I lost a friend coming here, you know?"

"Were they killed in a fight?" She asked, but I just shook my head.

"No. He never made it here. I saw his body disintegrating right next to me" I said. Why was I telling this stranger about Marcos? I didn't even know her… But then. I've been bottling these emotions up until now. I had no one to truly talk to. Alex seems worse than me about this, I don't want to overload her with my own stuff on top of hers, and I'm not that close with anyone else in our class to cry on their shoulders. The people in charge of us don't seem to care much about our mental health, just our physical health and if we were able to fight half-demons.

"I see" She said after a moment of silence. "It must have been hard for you. Coming here from a peaceful world just to be thrown into chaos and violence"

I weakly nodded.

"I must go now. If you want some advice. Be true to yourself. Don't try to hide your emotions. The System reads intent when giving titles and skills. If you hide your true self, you might find yourself with skills and titles that you do not like and will be stuck with them for the rest of your life" She said to me, then she got up and walked away.

I looked at the pond, again. The moons were reflecting off the surface of the water, forming a beautiful image worthy of being the wallpaper on my computer or my phone… I might as well, actually.

I opened my inventory and looked at the stuff that came with us when we were isekaied. I had stored my and Alex's stuff to avoid being stolen or broken, like what happened with the others. I pulled my phone out of my inventory. It had 53% charge, and the only reason it wasn't dead yet was because my inventory stopped time for the things it had stored there.

I unlocked it, revealing a bugged screen with much of my apps gone. The same had happened with Alex's phone. A lot of the stuff in our phone was just gone and bugged text was the only thing in its place. At least I could still use the phone's camera.

I took a picture and then I placed my phone back in my inventory. I felt a little relieved after I cried a little in front of that woman who I didn't even think about asking for the name. I still had a lot still inside, but some relief was appreciated.

I got up and started to make my way back when I felt a sudden urge to keep walking through the city. As I didn't see any reason to ignore it, I kept walking through the city, observing the closed shops and restaurants that would only open a few hours from now. Even the red light district wasn't too crowded this time of the night, but I passed through it nonetheless, though I didn't enter any place as I wasn't in the mood to go to one of those places.

It was when I passed through a darker alleway that I saw movement in the corner of my eyes, and when I looked to the source I only managed to catch the sight of a slowly closing door to avoid attracting attention. Well, it didn't work as my attention was totally caught.

I made my way towards the door. It was a simple wooden door, but the lock seemed way too complex for such a simple door, and something else told me that the door itself was probably filled to the brim with magic to avoid unwanted guests. I pulled my sword from my inventory and placed the tip of the blade on the wall next to the door and activated my skill and, using the stone element, I moved the sword downwards. The wall resisted for a few seconds but gave way as the stone in the wall flowed almost like water to the ground.

I entered the building and stealthily made my way through the corridors following the music I could now hear when I entered the building. I arrived at a closed door and I looked first through the keyhole, seeing no one in the immediate vicinity of the door. I opened it slowly, just enough for me to pass through.

I was on the second floor of a giant open room filled with people, dancers and music. It was not the same type of dancers as the red light district, but it was close, and I doubted the people down there were here just to have sex. I made my way towards a more hidden position, as I was out in the open, and before I could try to think what was happening here, the lights dimmed and the smell of blood hit my nostrils. For a moment I was back in the battlefield filled with half-demons, but I quickly dismissed that image out of my mind.

"Welcome, welcome" I heard a melodic male voice coming from the other side of the second floor.

I looked at the source of the voice and saw a human male with a red suit and red irises, but the most prominent thing on his face was the pair of vampiric fangs that protrude from his mouth.

"Let's begin!" He said, before the crowd on the first floor cheered for him.