Hello, hello! Welcome to the reboot of "The Shadow Monarch and the Otherworld"! Though the plot will be mostly similar at first, I hope that I'll be able to add more plot points to this story that I haven't put in the previous one. Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Well, Imma Go Die

Ah, Jin-ah thought. She couldn't make a sound from the sheer shock of everything.

In front of her was her classmate, Ayaka Shinozaki, with a large spike coming from the ceiling gouging through her torso. Her face was one not of agony as one would expect but of shock, eyes bulging and jaw slowly dropping as the victim started to realize what had happened. Color from her face faded as blood started to spill on the bus floor. Ayaka could only manage an inhale before she died. The spike pulled out, causing the bus to rumble and Ayaka's body to fall, her insides in full view.

"Ah…" Tomochika said at the sight of her bloody classmate.

"AAAH!" screamed Kiryuu, running for the exit.

"VRAAaaAAAHGH!" the creature outside roared.

Before he could reach it, however, the bus shook violently again, sending Tomochika and Jin-ah to the back of the bus. Getting back up, the two now saw Kiryuu impaled on the very same spike…

"Ugh… guh… grggh…" the boy gurgled.

The girls were shaking in fear as their survival started to seem more and more hopeless. The windows nearby only conveyed the color of the reptilian creature's scaly skin, the wyvern being far too big to be properly seen this close. This concealment only added on to the fear they were currently feeling.

Thud!

A phone flew from Jin-ah's hand, hitting the large, green spike. Her head in a haze, this was the most logical thing she could think of doing.

"GIAAAaaAAAAaaAAH!" the reptilian screeched, pulling out the spike and flying backwards. As it "jumped" backwards, the survivors were finally able to see the creature's full body. The wyvern was huge, the biggest living creature either girl had ever seen in their lives. It was green with reddish scales on its back, its head twice the size of the bus window. It had no hands: the muscular arms spread the wing attached to it, each arm ending in a sharp claw-like bone.

The dragon's mouth was starting to leak flames, eyes glaring at them with apparent hatred. It started beating its massive wings until it was almost a dot in the sky, until stopping and dropping in a downward arc.

Towards them.

"We need to go!" Jin-ah yelled in her accented Japanese, darting to the hole on the side of the bus.

Tomochika grabbed her arm. "Wait!"

Looking out, both girls could see the dragon approaching closer, and closer.

"Wait…" said Tomochika as she restrained Jin-ah's tugging. "Wait… now!"

They ran to the hole and jumped out, the dragon hitting the bus seconds later, only a foot off their heads!

BA-CRASH!

The bus was ripped in half, both halves tumbling down the plains. Seeing the fallen body of Kiryuu on the grass, the wyvern snatched him up in its jaws and swallowed. Also noticing Ayaka's body, the creature reached for the girl.

The wyvern's distraction was an opportunity that the remaining survivors took, running as fast as they could. Jin-ah and Tomochika looked around, looking for a place they could run and hide to.

"Look," Jin-ah pointed. "Forest!"

Following Jin-ah's finger, Tomochika saw a vast forest. It gave lots of bad vibes, however, but there really was no other choice. Other than there, it was all grass as far as the eye could see.

VRAAaaaAAAA!

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Both girls ran like their life depended on it (it did). Jin-ah ignored her burning lungs and her dying legs as much as she could. But, being the least athletic of the two, she could not keep up.

"Oof!" Jin-ah tripped and fell face first. With the sudden rest, she couldn't move anymore, no matter how much she commanded her limbs to get up.

"To…mo…" Jin-ah breathed out, unable to even yell properly. "Tomo…chika!"

By the time Tomochika noticed her friend missing by her side, it was too late. The wyvern was already right behind Jin-ah! Though it missed her actual skin, its tooth managed to snag her shirt. It snapped its head up and released, the victim falling into its maw.

"Gyaaah!" Jin-ah screamed.

"Jin-ah!" screamed Tomochika.

Jin-ah watched her classmate hesitate, then turn and run. She couldn't blame her, not like Tomochika had to stay and watch her friend die in front of her. As she got closer to the wyvern's jaws, time seemingly slowed to a crawl, her facing the virtually bottomless pit that was her fate.

Oh, Jinah thought. Time does slow when you're about to die.

In an instant, she thought back to everything that had started this:

The bus being summoned to a weird landscape…

"Huh? Wasn't it snowing outside?"

"Where are we?"

The Sage boarding, killing the teacher and the driver and giving the system to her classmates…

"No interruptions please. The conduct I recommend all of you take is shaking from fear with clattering teeth. Don't act out of line, pay attention."

"My power level is 530,000, you know."

"I summoned you so you guys can become Sage candidates."

"This system is called Gifts. Please use it and try to become Sages."

"Unfortunately, some people are incompatible."

Her classmates receiving a mission announcement…

"Waaah! A dragon!"

"Aren't they just fantasy!?"

"What do we do!?"

"Everyone, please listen!"

And the Gifted ones betraying the powerless ones…

"Hold on. Sorry guys, you can't come with us."

"Huh!? Out of my way, Yazaki…"

Creak…SNAP!

"A General at Level 1 is already this strong…"

"I'm sorry!… Once we're a higher level, we'll come back and save you!"

Then her classmates' death, and now hers.

"Hah…"

"Guh…grggh…"

Being near death seemed to have sped her thought process; all the events up till now seemed like a blur. Jin-ah shut her eyes as she dropped into the wyvern's cavernous mouth, its burning, foul-smelling breath surrounding her as an assurance of the situation's reality.

Tomochika, please be safe, she thought. Mom… Dad…

"Oppa…" the Korean whispered out loud, the reason unknown to her.

She was falling: weightless, air rushing past her ears in the brief moments before her inevitable doom.

Then, she felt a pressure on her arms and on her head, the foul-smelling breath being replaced by wind smacking her in the face, and then a sudden stop. She was being held by something warm and it smelled so familiar…

"It's alright, you're safe now."

Jin-ah opened her eyes. At first, everything was blurry. As her eyes adjusted from her confusion, she saw something…someone whom she thought she'd never see HERE. The kind eyes, black clothes, smooth cut…

"Ah… ah…" Tears ran down her eyes, her brain struggling to find words. "Ah…ah…"

"Sorry I couldn't be here sooner, Jin-ah."

"Jin-ah-san!" shouted the voice of a confused Tomochika. "Uh..who is that!?"

A wave of emotions: sadness, confusion, relief, happiness, anger rushed into Jin-ah so fast that she still couldn't find the words to say for some time.

Until finally:

"How are you here, Oppa!?"

Well, first of all, thank you for reading! Getting thirty favorites, thirty followers and over a thousand views on my last work was actually a surprise, so thank you for that. I didn't think that so many people would have found it. I guess the SL and ID anime really helped. Secondly, I'm sorry this first chapter took long, but in my defense I had the story planned out days in advance. The problem was actually thinking about the first line for this chapter. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope to see you in the next chapter!