"What… The Hell is that thing?!"

What stood behind the old man was a beast that had shared many similarities to that of a dragon, yet there was something strange about it that prevented it from being classified as that.

The beast radiated a fierce aura that was exactly identical to the one the old man had surrounding him. Trenton knew that this beast was bloodthirsty from the moment it had broken through those walls and was probably going to stop at nothing until Trenton was dead.

"Will it even matter if I told what this creature was?" The moment the old man had spoke, Trenton had noticed an immediate change in his voice. His voice had sounded a lot deeper than it was originally, and there was now an echo that had followed after every word he had said. "This will be your first and last time seeing it after all."

"O-Oh, really now?" Trenton might've been a tad bit oblivious earlier, but he knew what the old man had meant. "Well on second thought, I think it might be better if I didn't know what it was."

The beast roared loudly and shook the entire room. Trenton covered his ears and noticed that the old man had vanished into thin air. The blonde haired man didn't really care about where he had gone off to, especially since he was trying to kill him. Trenton was more focused on the monster that had stood in front of him.

"I need to get out of here, I'm definitely not fighting whatever that thing is!" The young man automatically looked over at the giant hole in the wall that the creature had made during its entrance. "I found my exit, now I just need to get there without-OH MY GOD!"

While Trenton was thinking of a way, the creature had been charging up a beam of sorts. By the time Trenton had realized what was going on, the beast had finished and was about to fire it. "I gotta move!" Trenton was about ready to break into a full sprint, but as soon as he had started to run, he tripped on something and fell onto his face again. "I forgot about the other chain!"

The beast saw this as an opportunity to strike and fired multiple vertical pillars of fire at Trenton. The young man was just barely able to avoid the first pillar of fire, as it was able to burn a bit of his lab coat off. Trenton grabbed the iron ball and got up from the floor and ran towards the hole in the wall. "Come on, come on, almost there…!" The young man was running as fast as he could, but even though he was carrying the iron ball, he still felt like he being restricted in some way.

The beast screeched once again and caused the whole room to shake violently. Trenton slightly turned his head and tripped again when he was that the monster was now up in the air was about to divebomb into him. "How is this fair?! Give me a chance to at least-"

Trenton never got to finish his sentence before the monster had made a beeline straight towards him. The blonde haired man soon realized that the adrenaline in his body had kicked in, causing him to zoom out of the way right as the creature had crashed into the ground. The shockwave was so strong, that the rubble and junk that were lying in the room had gone flying everywhere, Trenton himself wasn't an exception to this rule.

"AAAAAAAHHHhhhhh…" Trenton had begun to scream but had stopped once he had realized something. "Hey… I'm outside!" The shockwave had actually helped Trenton instead of screwing him since it had launched out of the hole in the wall. "HAH! Suck it, you huge overgrown toe-ACK!"

As he was spitting insults, he had failed to realize that he was still flying through the air. Once gravity had caught up with him, the young man had fallen and began to roll down a hill that was littered with hazardous objects such as glass, broken pipes, spikes, and much more.

"OW! OOF! FUCK! OUCH!" Trenton rolled down the hill, hitting most of the objects that were in his way. After what seemed to be going forever without any end, Trenton had reached the bottom of the hill. His lab coat, as well as the clothing he wore under, were in bad condition. He also many scraps and bruises on his face, chest, and legs, yet it seemed like his arms were fine. "Ugh… Did the rolling stop?"

Trenton got up from the floor, only to immediately fall back down again. After trying a few more times, Trenton was able to keep his balance and stand on his own two feet. The young man placed his hand on his head and looked back up the hill, only to lock eyes with- "...Oh, hi there."

The creature poked its head out from the hole in the building that was on top of the hill. It had begun to growl at Trenton before pulling its head back in and disappearing from the man's sight. Trenton, on the other hand, knew that the monster was far from finished, and was about to bring down the entire building before coming after him. The young man looked around and noticed that he was in a grassy field that had strange structures that seemed to have been out of place.

While those things had caught briefly caught the man's attention, he had noticed something a lot bigger in the distance. "Those buildings over there… That must be a city! Maybe I can find someone or something there that will help me deal with this thing!"

And so, Trenton had started to make his way to the city. To his dismay, the chain to the iron ball didn't break when he was rolling down the cliff, so he was left with a bit of weight. Trenton could hear the monster roar. Once the young man was a good enough distance, he could hear the monster screech from where he was, signifying that he needed to pick up the pace.

"Ah… Geez, that really hurt…" A familiar lilac-haired girl had started to wake up from her slumber. Neptune had felt very dizzy once she had woken up, along with a sharp pain that she felt in the back of her head. The woman placed her hand on the spot where the pain was and winced. "OW! Alright, who's the funny guy who thought I was a Pocketed Monstrosity and threw a ball at me? Cause jokes on you pal, I had full hp!"

Neptune looked around, not for a person, but for the very thing that had knocked her out. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to find anything that may have done the deed and gave up. "Eh, whatever." Neptune didn't feel as dizzy as she was moments earlier, so she got up from the floor. The girl was a little shaky in her legs but was still able to balance herself. "How long was I out for anyway?" Neptune looked up into the sky, but instead of seeing the sun, she saw the sky, which had turned into a dark purple color. "What… the…?"

In all her time of being the last person in Gamindustri, this was the first time in a long time she had noticed the sky turn into a different color. There was something unsettling and ominous about it, but the lilac-haired girl couldn't really figure out what it was. "Things are starting to get REALLY weird around here…" Neptune seemed slightly uncomfortable. "I should probably get home like… now."

Neptune had only taken 2 steps forward before she stopping. The young woman had felt something hard underneath her shoe and lifted it up and looked down. Lying on the ground underneath her foot, was what seemed to be a notebook that had Planeptune's symbol on the front cover. Even though Neptune had just stepped on it, the notebook had looked to be in mint condition.

"Ooh! What do we have here?" Neptune kneeled down to pick up the book and got back up again. The woman observed the front and back cover and saw that the notebook seemed to be completely fine. "Kinda looks like a diary… Eh, I don't think the owner would mind if I looked inside it, right? It's not like their secrets matter anymore."

After that uncalled for comment, Neptune opened the book and began to flip through the pages. To her surprise, it seemed like the notebook really didn't belong to anyone since the pages were all empty. "Wow, and I got my hopes up for a second. Oh well, looks like some random person's secrets are safe…for now." Neptune gave the notebook a once over before closing it and slipping it into her messenger bag. "Oh well, at least I've got a replacement for that notepad of mine. It was running out of pages, so the timing is perfect!"

Neptune never even questioned where the book had come from, she just accepted it for what it was and moved on. The lilac-haired girl was completely unaware of the notebook's true origins and how it had actually come to be.

"Alright, now back to-"

"SSCCCRRREEEEEEE-"

"KYAH!"

Neptune was cut short when she had heard a loud ear screeching sound throughout the entire nation. The young girl covered her ear, and that was just barely enough to block out the terrible deafening noise. "WHAT THE NEP IS THAT?!" Neptune shouted as the screeching went on. "WHO'S GRINDING THEIR NAILS ON THE DANG CHALKBOARD?!"

The screeching had soon came to a stop, but Neptune kept her ears covered for a little while longer. Once the girl was absolutely sure that the screeching had stopped, she moved her hands from her ears and looked around. "I'm like really lost right now, did I miss some important dialogue on my way over here? Why's all this weird stuff suddenly happening?"

Neptune was now expecting answers from something or someone. Even though nothing was giving her a response, she knew that something was up. The young woman knew fully well that she wasn't dreaming or having hallucinations. "Hey! I know I already tried this, but you better come out and show yourself!" Neptune was debating in her head whether to summon her weapons or now. "I already know that you're here, so just come on out already!

…

…

…

"CRASH!"

"NEPPU!"

As if it were planned, another loud sound entered into Neptune's ears and was followed by the ground shaking. Neptune had lost her balance and fell but was, fortunately, able to stop her head from hitting the ground. "From crying out loud, Mother Nature! Is it that time of the month for you or something? Why are you being pissy all of the sudden?!"

Neptune soon noticed a large cloud of smoke rise up from somewhere that wasn't too far from her current location. The young girl stood up slowly as she watched the smoke cloud rise up into the sky. Without thinking or making any type of comment, Neptune bolted towards the smoke cloud.

"*Cough* *Cough*" Trenton had started to cough up blood as his vision had started to return to him. The man looked around and noticed that he was lying in a pile of rubble in the middle of the street.

As Trenton was running towards the city in the distance, the creature who he was running from had finally decided to chase after him. Unfortunately for Trenton, it didn't matter how far he had run. The beast was able to reach and block his path in under 10 seconds.

Trenton had soon found himself in a pretty difficult situation. The man couldn't fight since he didn't have any sort of weapon on him, and he couldn't exactly run in another direction since the creature would cut him off no matter where he had gone.

While he was thinking of something, the monster had lunged at him. Trenton had proceeded to act on instinct and swung at him with the iron ball that had, fortunately, hit him… but unfortunately got caught in his mouth.

The monster had then proceeded to spin Trenton around until the ball had broken off the chain and sent the man flying into the city. The monster realized what had just happened and took a deep breath before letting out another screech and going after Trenton.

"T-There's no time to be lying around…!" Trenton had a very hard time getting up from the rubble. To the blonde haired man, it had felt like his bones were broken and made it incredibly hard to move his body. After enough trial and error, Trenton was able to pick himself up off the ground and had started running through the city

As Trenton ran, he had noticed that the city had looked as if it were abandoned. The man didn't see a single person as he ran. Trenton had also failed to realize that he was no longer restricted by any weights, and was able to move freely without any restrictions.

"Where is everyone?!" The man continued asked as he kept on running through the city. "There's not a person in sight!"

Trenton stopped to take a deep breath and check on the location of the beast that was after him. Half of him was expecting the monster to be standing on top of one of the buildings and staring down at him, but that, fortunately, wasn't the case. The creature was nowhere to be seen, but Trenton still knew that he was after him and would eventually find his location.

"God, this isn't looking good at all…" The blonde haired man had started to break into another sprint with a visible look of frustration on his face. "What am I going to do? Is there really no one here? Am I actually fucked? This… This isn't right! I'm about to die and I still don't-SHIT!"

"NEPPU!"

…

…

…

Trenton lied down on the floor, face first in the cement. The young man had slowly picked himself from up off the ground and felt the pain rush to his head.

Neptune lied down on the floor face first in the cement. The young woman had slowly picked herself from up off the ground and felt the pain rush to her head.

"Ow…" Both of them placed their hands on their head and rubbed the spot that they had both felt pain in.

The two of them had felt like something was off and stopped rubbing their heads. There was a long pause between their last action and the next. Something was telling both of them to turn around, and without any hesitation, Neptune and Trenton had both begun to turn their bodies.

…

… They continued…

...

… And continued…

…

… Until finally, they stopped…

…

… And met each other's gazes.

Chapter Cleared…

Two Sides of the Same Coin