Walking down the streets of Pasig City, you will see everything in ruins. Broken cars, shattered buildings, and crumbling skyscrapers. It was supposed to be just another day in our post-quarantine world, but everything changed when we heard a voice saying the words “Earth’s Protection Agreement has ended. To everyone living on the planet, good luck!” Everything we thought of as fictional became a reality. I saw a bunch of red dogs with long chains heavy chains dangling from their necks running right in front of me. I thought they were coming after me and that I was going to die, but they all just sped past me for they are being chased by what could only be described as a gryphon, a giant bird as big as a horse. I hurriedly ran and entered this nearby condominium where my friend from Australia lives.

His name’s Anton, a nice 50-year-old man who decided to spend his retirement in the Philippines to live a comfortable life. Anton is staring out his balcony to see what exactly is going on. When I finally arrived at his place, he told me that all sorts of creatures popped out after that unknown voice from earlier finished his sentence. Dwarves, elves, dragons, ghouls, zombies, gryphons, aliens, giant peculiar animals. After hearing his words, I felt a sense of dread overwhelming me. My dream life of a peaceful suburban home was ruined and all that awaits me is either a swift death or a life of pain and hardship.

After a while, Anton gave me some snacks and shoved it in my backpack. He told me that he lived a long life and that while he still had more things, he wanted to do he knew it was the end of the line for him. We talked for around half an hour where he told me about his favorite tabletop game session. He told me the story about the time when his party’s characters were all getting killed and he luckily killed the general of the big bad guys. This made him earn enough experience to level up and get a hold of a new spell, “Wish” a spell that can alter reality. He used this new spell to revert to the day when his party’s characters were almost killed. He brought with him his current knowledge and skills which then made his party more prepared. With the use of the new spell, they easily killed off their worst enemy and were able to save the day. After listening to his story, he showed me that very same dice he used to kill that last general which gained him his advanced level and the new spell. It is a beautiful transparent red 20-sided dice that is a little bit worn. While Anton and I were talking, I was doing my best to calm down and keep myself from crying from fear. Then out of the blue, something happened. Something that gave me hope in this dreadful world, happened. The dice shined and something about Anton changed; his aura changed. He smiled, patted me on the head and said, “Everything isn’t over yet.”

Being weirded out by what just happened, I asked, “What do you mean, Anton?” He then said to me that while strange creatures are spawning everywhere, something has changed in the world that isn’t so horrible. He explained to me that the humans, have a defense mechanism wherein we can turn what we thought of as fiction into a reality. Hearing his explanation gave me goosebumps. I have always been a guy in love with fictional stories from the fantasy stories of Anime, light and web novels, to the space opera of TV shows and games. Maybe I could be a Spellsword like in my fantasy games. Perhaps my inner self would rattle on about rebelling. Whatever the case may be, I can see that there is still hope somewhere out there in this lawless world.

Now, there is something that Anton could not tell me. How to activate this defense mechanism or this power he speaks of. He played a bit with his new power a bit, casting cantrips like a real Tabletop RPG Sorcerer. He enchanted my shirt with magic armor, my pants with shield, my shoes with misty steps, and my backpack... Well, he turned it into a bag of useful things, which can summon mundane items and supplies that would help me survive. I followed him around the town. He said that he would help me get back home. We walked invisibly with a force field around us to not be seen and our scents be hidden. It seemed cool while we were inside the condominium compound since there were only a few monsters around. Everything became scary once we stepped outside and then we saw a couple of people give up on life and let themselves get eaten by these small pink transparent blobs. We saw their faces melt off and dissolve and disappear in a matter of seconds. I talked to Anton and I convinced him to go to Medical City since my girlfriend and his girlfriend work near that area. Mine is in the business district while Anton’s girlfriend works as the director of the hospital. But before we could get there, we saw a couple of goblins trying to jump on a group of teenage girls. I saw that the goblins are starting to rip off their clothes. Before I could go on and tell Anton about what I saw, lightning already flew away from his hands, vaporizing most of the goblins. One of the girls got covered in an aura of flames and burnt the last of the goblins along with her companions. Upon seeing this, Anton and I looked at each other. It seemed like we were both thinking of the same thing; friendly fire is indeed possible with these new powers that people are getting. The girl cried loudly and jumped off the side of the road and into the Pasig River. I think she tried to kill herself by drowning but the fire vaporized that part of the river and covered her in a red fiery bubble. Seeing it because we were still invisible, I told Anton that saving the girl would be a hassle because we have somewhere else to be.

While we were walking towards Medical City around halfway through Jenny’s Avenue, I’m thinking to myself I’m lucky that I am with someone who you could call awakened into what could be a new world. Suddenly after a bit of walking, something came rumbling from the sky and it got dark.

Looking above I only saw was a yellowish shadow bearing down on me. I closed my eyes since it was moving too fast. Luckily, Anton held onto me and then we moved. After coming to my senses, I realized that we had just made use of the tabletop RPG spell Teleport. Looking at the creature that attacked us, I saw a bluish bird with magical symbols floating around it and there was lightning traveling throughout its body. The only possible thing I can think of is that it might be the mythological creature, Thunderbird. In the lore of most games, thunderbirds are only a step lower than phoenixes. No wonder it tracked us down. Even if Anton did the best he could, it is still not a match for the bird with literally lightning-fast reflexes. It must have heard something when Anton sent out lightning earlier or maybe it could see through our force field. While I was having this thought, cold sweat ran through my body, and then I shouted, "Why did you attack us?!" The Thunderbird just screed loudly. Anton sent out a red beam while shouting “disintegrate” towards the enemy. The Thunderbird looked at the red beam and one of its lightning bolts slammed towards it, piercing through it, and destroying our force field that kept our scents intact. After that, I saw a lot of monsters coming at us; goblins, hellhounds, blobs, trolls, ogres, gryphons. Looks like everything from around a few kilometers was heading our way. I ran and used my shoes with misty steps for short-burst teleports. It eventually fizzled out. I then had to run normally with Anton beside me. For an old man, he didn’t seem to be short of breath like I was. It seems awakening also improved his stamina and endurance. The Thunderbird seeing as other creatures were after his prey, screeched loudly. Lightning bolts rained down from the sky, killing everything in sight. After that, some sort of energy was released and the Thunderbird huffed it all in, extremely happy for itself. It felt like we can no longer run away.

Anton could try to fight this out. But as for me, what can I do? I can’t do anything. Anything that I think of will be overturned by the bird’s absolute strength. If only I could also awaken. If only, I could also stand up and fight. After thinking that, I heard a voice inside my head saying, “Do you wish for power? If you forsake your companion and hand him to me, I will turn you into a king in this new world.” The thought of how and should I knock Anton out flitted through my mind. But ultimately, I decided against it. Anton was the one who helped me calm down when I thought all hope was lost. He was also the one who showed me the way to survive. When I snapped out of my thoughts, the fighting had begun. It was a battle between the mage Anton and the Thunderbird. Anything Anton threw, the bird didn’t care for it; be it lightning, earthen spikes, fireballs, or even beams of light. The Thunderbird looked like it was playing with Anton. Now that Anton is running out of strength, a lightning bolt ran out from the bird and cut off Anton’s arm. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Anton’s screaming was so loud in my head and along with that, my hope for living dwindled down immediately.

Streams of light were filling up the surrounding roads and streets, and then the most incredible thing happened. Anton shined up and killed the bird with the strange light. After seeing that, I finally thought we were safe. But then I saw that Anton stopped glowing. I saw him run out of energy. I approached him and said, “Anton, are you okay? Do you need anything? Anything at all?” I was so scared for him to leave me at that time, but he just smiled at me and said “How did you like that? Literally my flashiest move, yeah? It is a homebrew spell I cooked up for my wizard after earning mythic ranks” Smiling politely, I said, “You can tell me all about it after you are healed up. For now, we rest”. But then Anton said, “I can’t rest until we get to our destination so my mind can feel at ease. Let me just heal up for now.” Just mere moments after that, a bird made of lightning formed from the carcass of the Thunderbird. It is about to pierce through Anton. Before the bird could get to him, with reddened eyes, Anton shouted, “Wish!” In a flash, everything around us changed. The moment I came to my senses, all I could say was, “It’s you!”