I had just finished one of the best games I have ever played, only to look up and find I was no longer in my room, but kneeling in the bloody sand of a colossal, sun-baked fighting arena.

How did this happen?

How did things go from playing a video game to being transported into the body of a background character within the game, who was exonerated and abandoned due to not having as much magical potential as the rest of the family?

…A character who was doomed to die a very horrible death right at the beginning of the game?

I immediately reached out to Ino, who was still swimming toward the voice while dragging Dion with her.


Grabbing her hand, I yanked her hard, stopping her forward momentum. I immediately spun around and began swimming frantically back toward the shore, dragging both of them with me.


"Huh? Aren't we checking out the voice again?" Ino asked, her tone confused and eerily calm. She clearly still seemed to be under the compulsion.


I couldn't reply to her. My arms were burning from the effort: Celeste's dead weight on one arm and Ino and Dion on the other. I began to groan as I struggled to push all of us forward through the water. The only small mercy was that Ino didn't struggle and just confusingly allowed me to drag her and Dion. 


Chapter 53 - Underwater