"Heretic and last of the stain of the Darkness, have you any last words before your infernal spirit is sent screaming back down to the Underworld?" A stern and elderly priest enrobed in white silk raiments and gold chains smirked down at the last Maou, pinned to the bedrock by his hands and legs with blessed silver stakes. "Your kind will now finally cease to exist with your death, and Light shall finally triumph over Darkness! Speak now or forever hold your tongue, Ruby Eyed Shannaro!" Surrounding the two were a ring of heavily armored Inquisitors and Archmages, the former leveling crossbows at the pinned figure and the latter ready to immolate with arcane flames.

The pained figure simply smirked balefully at these so called "champions of justice", blood dribbling down his bruised and cut face. He did not look anything like a demon save for his eyes which shone as brightly as the red jewels they were named after, and more like a hawkish old man that was currently sporting quite a few injuries. He was skinny and wore rags that showed off his emaciated frame, a leftover from the tortures he was subjected to. And now he was dragged out for a public execution, right before the most powerful people in the capital of light. The fat king and his brood, loathsome tyrants who heavily taxed the people to grease the hands of the adventurers. The nobles who similarly did so to host decadent balls and parties, viewing the commoners as no more than slaves. And the Church, who cut down any that dared not follow the Pantheon of Light.

Yes, it was all worth it. Amidst the sneers and jeers and being pelted with rotten fruit, the elder Maou activated his final gift to the world. "Shannaro..." The old man rasped, now sporting a full on manic grin that had projectiles and fire hurled at him. "SURPRISE!" Then, as his life was ended by the attacks, the magic bomb embedded in his heart activated and destroyed the surrounding area for a mile around in a flash of brief but supremely intense azure fire that seared even the clouds and razed the land in a perfect circle of that distance. Nothing but superheated dust was to be found at ground zero, with the only traces of the victims to be found as faint outlines on the ground or whatever remained of the stone walls. The first part of his plan had worked even with his death, crippling the forces of Light. A hundred of the most powerful people of the most powerful country was taken out in one fell swoop by his hellfire bomb, which paved the way for the restoration of Darkness. On to phase two...

---

On a parallel planet connected vaguely to the world where the last Maou spitefully blew himself and a hundred of the most prominent and powerful of his enemies, various people going about their day would notice something definitely out of place as they lived their daily life. No matter how much they blinked or rubbed their eyes, a translucent blue text box was following their line of sight. On it was a simple sentence that would change their lives significantly. It read as followed: [Do you want to be a Maou? -Y/N]

Tamara Winters, an island kingdom on an insignificant blue-green planet

Tamara's room was kind of a mess, really. It seemed like there wasn't a single inch of floor that wasn't occupied by various novels, comic books, game manuals, DVDs, videogames, plastic models of heroic looking individuals... Honestly, it was a wonder she could even make her way in and out. Then again, today wasn't set to be very eventful, so that wasn't exactly a problem at the moment as she lazily lay back on her bed, idly strumming her guitar.

"Huuum... So bored..."

Usually, the redhead would be filled with boundless energy. But something about today just seemed to sap her enthusiasm. It was just... So boring, really; nothing to do, nowhere she needed to be, so here she was, lazing about on her own.

"...Huh?"

She blinked. It didn't go away. That was... Odd. Maybe she'd been playing too many videogames lately... Maybe that would explain the dialogue box floating in front of her.

""Do you... Want to be a... Maou..."" she read aloud, her eyes drifting across the words, reading and rereading them in the vain hope that repeated readings would lead to the words making more sense. "...Sure, why not?" She was probably daydreaming anyway, so there was no harm in it. Raising an arm, her finger reached out and gently poked Y...

At the very least, things were going to get far less boring rather quickly.

Oh, the cookies were ready!

Smiling cheerfully, Miranda put on her oven mitts and carefully pulled open her oven. Ah, they smelled wonderful... they would need to cool down, of course, before she ate them. She pulled out the oven rack and took the cookie sheet in both hands, taking it out and placing it on the oventop. Oh, she was going to enjoy eating some of them... and giving out the others, of course. She certainly couldn't eat all of them. Oh, but aside from her baking, today was going to be so slow... she had finished up watching Gurren Lagann again just last night! It was hard to find something to do after coming down from watching something like that. Oh, whatever could she do today... aside from wait for her cookies to cool down and have some of them.

The brunette folded her arms over her chest and looked thoughtful, mulling her options over. And then, rather suddenly, what appeared to be some kind of computer display popped up in front of her eyes. She jumped in surprise, nearly knocking over her cookies. Thankfully, she managed to steady herself and keep her cookies from falling off the oven.

"... A... Maou?" Miranda tilted her head in confusion. Why was there a floating box in real life, and why was it asking her about something like this? After a few moments of hesitation, she prodded the Y option.

"Yes...?"

Today had not exactly been a good one for Karla. As far as fathers went, she drew a short stick. Her relationship with the man was one of business rather than family, rarely encountering him outside of the occasional chance-meeting in their Dubai-based home or when attending some sort of event with him.

Their uncommon meetings rarely went well. The ethical and moral divide between the two was insurmountable, unmendable by familial relation alone. To say they argued sometimes would be like saying water is sometimes wet. Today was no exception, and the man even had the gall to laugh at his daughter, calling her 'adorably naive'.

Was there something wrong with wishing to conduct ones self with some standard of human decency? Apparently her father thought so. Of course, she was more than a little bit experienced in the ways of being criticised for her ways, but it still got to her when it came from her father.

Frustrated, she retreated to her 'study' (which was just what she called her rather large room), opting to do what she did whenever she was upset - retreat into the wonderful world of books. Human Understanding and the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus would not be so eager to call her a fool and a child!

She was perfectly happy to sit and read in peace, but that was far too ideal of a situation.

A simple interactive blue text box, like that out of a video game, nagged at her peripherals, mistaking it for the heat and frustration playing tricks on her. It didn't take long for her to start considering the text. A yes or no question, asking her if she wished to be something she'd never heard of in her life. The red haired girl leaned back in her chair with a pout, weighing the three options before her: Wait it out and see if it goes away, or answer with one of the options.

"...What was it the Romans used to say? Audaces fortuna iuvat?" She asked, as if the text box could hear her in some way.

In a moment of uncharacteristic brashness, the pampered intellectual teenager picked the option that would change everything.

"Yes."

August hummed happily to himself as he dug a little plot in the dirt. He paused to adjust the sunhat he was wearing, then gently lifted a flower out of a tiny ceramic pot next to him and placed it in the hole before re-filling it and patting it down with a trowel.

"There you go little buddy! Grow up big and strong now, alright?"

August did feel pretty dumb talking to plants sometimes honestly, but he had always been taught that it was good for the plants if you talked to them or sang to them or that sort of thing so he compromised between humming and talking. August liked gardening at least. It only really required lots of patience and a calm attitude and it came with its' own very visible rewards seeing something grow and bloom or even making something edible out of the effort that got put into the hobby.

August picked up his crutch off the ground and slowly pushed himself up to a standing position with one hand and lifted a watering can with the other. Through a careful and practiced balancing act he balanced the watering can against his arm and crutch as he tipped it slowly to water the flower and a few other plants nearby. Suddenly though a strange computerized display screen popped up right before his eyes. The shock of it plus his vision suddenly becoming obscured was enough to make him drop the watering can and nearly fall over, though he caught himself just in time. He puzzled over the strange dialogue box for a minute or so.

"Become...a Maou, huh? Well, I guess I don't have much else to do today, right?"

Rolf Van Eisenfaust was doing his morning warmups. In his woodland home, he was carrying large containers of water back to the house from the neighbor's well about half a mile away. Of course, he'd also had to stop off to adjust the sandbags tied around his waist and the training weights on his ankles, but he'd still make good time. He felt a little guilty slacking off like this, but he'd only gotten six hours of sleep last night. With a mighty heave, he placed the several-gallon containers on the back step before frog-hopping up. At the top step, however, an annoying dialog box like when he was browsing news sites popped up. Clearly, this was a gypsy curse or something. But it was challenging him.

[Do you want to be a-]

With a mighty swing, he punched the Y button, eyes blazing with determination and barely contained excitement.

"A MAN NEVER REFUSES A NEW CHALLENGE!"

" Dinner time!" Toru Fukui exclaimed as he spread fodder for chickens while standing outside farmhouse, pack of chickens running for the fodder pecking ground for food, few fighting few short moments before continuing the feast.

Toru lifted the fodder sack inside a shed to prevent animals from getting extras after feeding. He had all morning taken care of animals feeding them and giving them water, few strands of straws poking on his track jacket and hair. Hi Aunt and Uncle had left to town for buying needed tools to fix fences around the farm and barns. "Haa... that's almost everybody.." He said to himself wiping his forehead before picking up a bucket and heading for waterpump.

Placing the empty bucket under the pump, he began to push the lever on the pump, filling the bucket with water, just when the water level reached almost full he stopped and picked the bucket." Now the horses." Just when he picked the full water bucket up, he got startled by a blue box with message in it.

"Maou...?" He rubbed his eyes, maybe he was working bit too hard and was still sleepy. Trying to touch the pop up screen he accidentaly pressed the "Yes" choice. "Uh...?" He gave out a sound of realization of what he just did.

Dorian Gray sat at the desk at the head of the class looking forlornly out at the now empty seats and tables. A new record he thought I've only been threatened by students four times today and the principal has only managed to threaten to fire me twice. He cracked a wry smile the old man might be softening up on him but tomorrow he had yet another meeting with an incensed parent who would demand to know why their special snowflake was failing chemistry. He would tell them of the pre-set study times he does after school and on weekends, he would tell him of the tutoring options available through the library but as always in the end the only fault they would see was his. "My little boy would be passing this class if maybe you weren't the one teaching it" he said in a high falsetto "There is no way my little gumdrop is just a lazy idiot who couldn't tell you the year let alone what an ion is!"

His head hurt he realized, and his back, and the cut on his hand from cleaning up yet another broken beaker dropped by yet another careless student. All of a sudden though a bluish box popped into existence in front of him. "I've left something on a hot plate" he said thinking he was hallucinating, yet after checking the lab he saw there was nothing still running he walked back to his desk and the floating text box. "Do you want to be a Maou?" he read, "I guess it beats this" he said as he pressed the yes button.

"Mhm..." It was a normal summer day on which a not so normal girl was sitting on a roof-top. Equiped with palette and brush she was nearly finished to give live to a piece of paper, the scaffold pointing towards a skyscrapper it wasn't hard to figure what she had nearly finished. "Mhm, no no no, not enough drama~" she said to no one but herself. "Rrrright! More drama!" Touched by the muse the girl got back to work right away, more drama was always good.

Frankly, Adam didn’t know what to do with the abundance of free time he had now. He had thought that he would come back and find his time eaten up by the hectic household of two children and one father. Instead his irresponsible siblings had matured into young adults, well capable of taking care of themselves, and that left him without much to do. It was somewhat a relief and a disappointment at the same time to see how they had changed over the four years. Instead of simply wasting his time inside the house though, Adam figured he would go for a run. The neighbourhood had changed since he last lived here, who knew what he might find now.

Stepping outside, bright rays of sunlight greeted him although the temperature was pleasant. Before he could begin stretching though, a fairly distinct and familiar voice reached his ears. Following it back to the source, he found a sight that would have been odd if not for the person. Yuno. Only she would perch atop a house with her easel set up and palette in hand. The girl was an odd one and he hadn’t seen her much since he had enlisted; maybe only two or three times on the odd vacations he had. Wondering if she still remembered him, or at least the meals he fed her, Adam shimmied up the side of the building with ease. Landing on the tiles without much sound, he called out, “Yoh, Ms. Satsujinki, remember me?” The Ms. was a small thing on his part, something he used to use to tease the young, young girl.

Drama was needed and Drama was provided. A living body in shape of a human falling from a skyscraper was dramatical, right, right? But she needed more, the painting was just too boring, why did the girl try to paint something like that anyways? What about her creativity? Goddamn! With that she teared the picture apart, not even noticing the one and only person she could remotly call friend. But now he was there...was he away? No, he was always by her side. "Sire Roland!" Throwing her brush and palette behind her the girl clasped her hands in joy.

“T’is I,” he replied with a small bow, smiling a bit at the girl’s vibrant, although other words may have been used, energy. He never had understood why she called him Sire Roland, amongst other names, but had gotten used to getting different names upon every meeting. He could never really get bored being around her, such was her nature. Walking over to her, he tussled her hair, messing it up, as he looked at her drawing. The skyscraper resembled the building behind the canvas, a fairly nice work of art if his inexperienced self could have that opinion. It wouldn’t have looked odd if not for the falling body, but then again it was Yuno… “Anyways, what have you been up to?”

...! How could he dare! Touching a ladies hair without her consent. "Onii-chan~" Yuno pouted now, damn siscon. Regardless, he got a affectional hug full of affection, tears started to flow. "I missed you so so much! Where were you?! I... I thought..." a small pause for the necessity of sobbing. "I thought you would never return!" Sob sob, that w... huh? What was that? Yuno was used to see things others could not see, but some kind of game message? Becoming an antagonist? Mhm, they didn't have to suffer and stories with good endings were lame anyways, of course she would like to be a Maou!

Her angry pouting expression only served to make Adam chuckle, though he stop messing with her hair. “Oomph.” The unexpected hug knocked a bit of wind out of him, and for a moment he wasn’t sure how to respond. Instincts, dulled by five years’ time, managed to kick in though and he patted Yuno on the head gently. He remembered the last time he had to do something like this, consoling both his siblings before he left the house. “Come on now, I-” Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a dull *ping* that nevertheless filled his ears. Blinking, a screen seemed to have materialized in front of him with the message, [Do you want to be a Maou? -Y/N] Blinking his eyes did nothing to drive away the message as it continued to hover in front of him. “Huh…” he murmured, unsure of what to take this as. Maou. Devil if he wasn’t mistaken. Interesting. “Yes?”

It was Evelyn Rose’s birthday.

A garish, extravagant affair that required weeks of planning to let everyone know this was a party hosted by the Rose family. They were old British nobility and had retained their power to this modern era by investing their fortune to become a massive worldwide conglomerate. They also, it seems, had retained their disposition towards ridiculous expenditures. Evelyn happened to be the heir and cherished only child, and this only rocketed the expenses even more.

Evelyn herself was perfectly happy with it all. Of course, there was nothing to be unhappy about. Sometimes, she thought herself to be the most fortunate girl in the world. Yes, she was born to a rich family and was blessed with both talent and beauty, she had to be happy.

There she stood, happy and dressed wondrously for the occasion. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied up by large ribbons, and let loose in flowing twin tails which only she could pull off at a formal event, while her hourglass form was fitted by a ruffled, layered dress the colour of her family's namesake. With all of the grandeur of a queen, she looked across the hall, gazing at the multitude of guests. Businessmen, politicians, and even actors and actresses were invited to the event and each walked by to pay their respects. When Evelyn thought about it, other girls her age would kill to be able to even meet some of these people, and yet here they were, all gathered in her family home.

There was no doubting it. She had to be the happiest person in the world. The happiest...

An amused smile crept upon her features as she looked upon the presents that piled up before her. Countless expensive gadgets and aesthetic products as well as fanciful dresses and shoes that the various businessmen and politicians had thought a girl her age might like. Evelyn already had them all, and tired of them. She had her own favourite brands and didn’t need this junk.

If one were to ask her what she truly wanted for her birthday, what would she say? She would be at a complete loss for an answer. What did she want? What did someone who already had everything want?

Really, there was nothi-

“I want something even greater.”

The words escaped her lips in a delicate whisper that she barely realized she had voiced her thoughts aloud.

“Even greater than all of this. Not mere material wealth, but something amazing that will fascinate me, chill me to the core. Movies, games, music, I’ve had it all, tried it all. What is there left?”

It was then which the little dialogue box appeared before her. At first, she thought it was a trick of light, she did have a little to drink after all. But as she blinked her eyes, then rubbed them lightly, it remained there, hovering ominously in her line of sight.

“Do you want to be a Maou?”

A choice of some sort was presented before her. She glanced around to see if anyone else saw it, but although people brightened as her attention came to them, they gave no indication of noticing that apparition. Shrugging slightly, she thought it was perhaps some sort of present. She was always getting exposed to new technology, and holograms surprised her not. Glad for this harmless little diversion, she smiled and brought her finger to the box.

“Yes.”

Alice Curze, Elsewhere in the Island Kingdom

A small student was continuing to whittle away the hours doing essentially nothing of particular interest, leaning over a bunch of plastic squares and staring at an ever-shifting pattern of bright lights. After spending half of the day asleep, and having done the essential things such as 'get something to eat', Alice had ended up sat in front of a computer, consuming large amounts of sugary drinks and keeping out of everyone else's hair in much the same way that she hoped they'd keep out of hers. On the whole, it seemed to be working; the hat-wearing girl's day had been joyously quiet and devoid of human contact.

Well, except for food, she supposed, where she'd just gone and bought it rather than cooked anything. Quite probably because she'd run out of things to cook and had no desire to go shopping. Still, that minor excursion aside, Alice had spent the entire day sequestered in her room, looking in irritation at code that continued to not be doing what she wanted it to do. So she'd given up, closed the textbook, and turned her attention instead to watching videos.

So when the text box showed up, the girl adjusted her glasses... and moved her mouse to where it said no... and clicked. Obviously, nothing happened, and this was more irritating than the box itself. Not only had the thing obviously gotten past pop-up blockers, it was a stubborn virus at that. Just killing the whole process didn't do anything, so she set the antivirus to scan, and got up to dig out the older computer that, running a completely separate operating system, should hopefully be immune to idiotic malware.

The textbox followed her. Removing and cleaning her glasses didn't make it go away. This was strange enough for her to actually pay attention to the box. Maou, huh? Well... she was fairly certain that meant something like demon, and playing a villain was always more fun. Deciding to play along with what was obviously a dream, Alice reached out and pressed yes.

Shujiko in Shujiland. Or something.

Her breathing was still light and controlled, even after running 600 meters through the town. Sure, the relaxed pace helped a bit with that, but the energetic girl could easily run much longer than this, if she needed too, and certainly quite a bit faster. Of course, for a leisurely jog, there was no point to that. Might as well conserve her energy for the real run later today. Besides, she had some shoujo manga to pick up!

And while Shujiko wondered how the totally platonic relationship of the female leads would develop into something even more platonic, she noticed something... strange about her vision. There was a lot more text than usual blocking her sight. With a slight tilt of her head, Shujiko read the words appearing before her, continuing to jog, undaunted.

Maou? That was... what was that, again? Sounded weird, but oddly exciting. The word ignited a sense of passion and awesomeness that called out to her, begging the teenager to accept the strange question and become... whatever a maou was!

"...Sure thing!" Shujiko accepted the text's offer. Then curiously tried waving her hand over the 'y' prompt, just in case the words didn't have a voice command app.

...Wait a minute, why is there floating words in my eyes?!

Ran had been her cool-down exercises after her somewhat intense workout session, which had consisted of various kata honed over and over again until the actions were all but instinctive and pulled off in a split second. Anyone could learn martial arts, but only a few could actually take it seriously as the girl did. Martial arts was not just a set of exercises or a way to pull out a can whoop butt on people you don't like. It was a way of life. It had many philosophies, though the core was to "better one's self". And that was what the third generation Asian American did: continuously practice to keep a healthy mind and body while continuously furthering herself in the Art. Once done, she dried off before shrugging her gray jacket back on and placing her blue beret on her head, since the winds were starting to get chilly to her now cooled down body.

That wasn't to say that she didn't use it for her own advantage every now and then. After all, being fit was a rather attractive side effect of the practice and there WERE plenty of cuties out there that one did want to impress... Slight giggles began emanating from the girl as her mind wandered while her body continued on auto-pilot, thinking of that particular person who worked in that one book store, her newest crush of the week. The girl did enjoy a good ogling every now and then, though she currently had no luck in the romantic department due to being too... overzealous. Like several magical girls from the various media she consumed really, no way were they going to end up with a guy that easily. And that made her a little frustrated.

"Mu..." Then, something blue and square flashed in her vision. Automatically, her hand lashed out in a twisting punch and only when she hit air did she blink in surprise. For what appeared was some sort of holographic text box asking if she wanted to be a Maou... and her fist had firmly struck the button intended for affirmation. "...Wha?" A split second later, something flashed under her foot and she felt the sensation of gravity acting upon her as she fell through a spacial corridor that connected the two worlds with each other.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Even trained martial artists can be surprised, especially when they land bottom first disoriented on rocky cobblestones in what looked to be a paved road that led towards a worn looking castle with its gates all but open. Othewise, the landscape simply showed a meadow of tough grass and weeds as far as the eyes could see with nothing but hills and the occasional tree around. Looking around, she saw various other holes in the fabric of reality and other figures that had landed. "Owies..." Rubbing her rear end and rebuking herself for being caught off guard, the girl then climbed back up on her feet.

<You and several others have accepted the proposal and have now been reborn as a Maou. You have gained the Maou Arts: [Maou's Mind] and [Maou's Body].> Another floating display had replaced the earlier message. Then, more information popped up. <[Maou's Mind (Passive): Level Max.] Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through as though they are playing a game. Immunity to psychological status effects.> Reading that, Ran then focused her attention on the second box. <[Maou's Body (Passive): Level Max.] Grants a body that allows the user to live life like a game and grow stronger through various actions.> Unknown to Ran was the fact that ever other prospective Maou was getting the same thing displayed to them.

And then yet another message popped up. [Tutorial Quest: What the Heck is Going On?!] <Journey into the Abandoned Castle for the obligatory exposition and synopsis!> "...Huh." Oddly enough, she wasn't panicking at having been dimensionally kidnapped. Probably the effect of [Maou's Mind] at work if what she read was true. "Well... I WOULD like to know what's going on..." The girl muttered, though she stayed put for now to look around for what the others would do.

The moment the word left his lips, he felt the rooftop give away to nothing under him. His eyes widened as he began to fall, all while noticing Yuno had seemingly disappeared. The urge to panic tried to rise for a moment before it was crushed ruthlessly by both training and experience. Wincing at the sudden change from pitch black to a wide landscape, Adam still managed to land on his feet as he dropped down to a crouch. Still trying to clear the stars from his vision, he nevertheless did a quick survey of his surroundings. ‘Well fuck,’ summed up his thoughts for the situation about as aptly as possible. He, and others if the strange portals and the black haired girl were any indication, had been dropped god knows where.

His musings were all pushed away with the appearance of various ‘notifications’, appearing before his eyes much like the offer had done so; [Maou’s Mind] and [Maou’s Body]. A quick read of their description brought up the urge to facepalm for Adam. Instead of doing so, he sighed and simply accepted the situation for what it was. [Maou’s Mind] was partially to blame, but Adam liked to think that he would have done much the same even without the ‘ability’, given a bit of time. In short, he had accepted the task of being resurrected as a Maou, or Devil, and was now thrown into something akin to a game. What role he was to play? Well he wasn’t quite sure just yet, but the most recent ‘notification’ would probably help in explaining things.

“How quaint,” he muttered as he scanned the latest bubble, [Tutorial Quest: What the Heck is Going On?!] At least whatever had caused all this was nice enough to lay a few things out afterwards. There was too much to think about right now, so scratching his head he figured it would be best to finish up the ‘quest’ first. Standing up, he brushed the dirt from himself and sighed in some modicum of relief. Despite gaining [Maou’s Body], his appearance didn’t seem to have changed. He would need a mirror to be sure, but it was something at the least. Looking around at the others, he figured waiting for them would be better than simply walking off into the ruined castle alone.

The Moment Toru pressed yes accidently light beneath his feet and his body started to feel the act of falling, still holding water bucket in his hand still full of water."Eh?" Was all he could say when he fell through a portal.

"WHAT IS THIS!?!? I'M FALLING! I'M FALLING!!!" Toru screamed from top of his lungs horrified. Landing on his back from short fall, water in the bucket he was holding splashed all over the cobblestone road and his black track jacket. "I though I was dying...." He whimpered weakly while laying on the paved road. When another inbox popped infront of his eyes he sat up reading the content.

[Maou's Mind] and [Maou's Body] , He soon noticed that he did felt unnaturally calm now after such surprise. " This is...." He looked around and saw more similar portals and more people falling through to rather hard landing with stone road underneath. "Ngh... great..." He muttered to himself taking his track jacket off and wringed the water out from it, with on top a grumble in his stomach reminding him from his missed breakfast.

[Tutorial Quest: What the Heck is Going On?!] "That's my line." He grumbled and read the objective of the quest. After finishing reading the objective he picked the bucket he brought along accidentally and looked around at others who had arrived there. They were most likely all the ones who chose yes as option in pop up window.

The important thing to remember about Alice's previous location was that it was several stories above ground level. On top of that, she was also absolutely terrified of heights; when the sudden falling started, Alice started screaming like a little girl and landed in about as undignified a manner as possible, landing half on the path and mostly on the grass... face-first. This, combined with dirt-encrusted glasses and her own bad eyesight, lead her to not notice the boxes for a brief moment whilst she sat up and cleaned the surprisingly-undamaged lenses.

With her glasses now clean, Alice adjusted her hat, tried to look imposing, and read the messages that were coming up in thin air. That... was an extremely annoying feature. Already, she was wondering if there was a way to customise or rearrange the UI, since it was getting in the way and an annoying shade of blue. On top of that, whoever was naming these quests was frankly terrible at it.

That wasn't a catchy name at all.

Well. Miranda was falling. This was not nice. This was in fact very scary.

The girl hit the ground with a yelp, landing on her front and lying there for a few moments in a confused daze. Slowly, Miranda rose, rubbing her eyes and looking around in confusion. There were things in front of her eyes... more messages? And other people. Now she had a Maou's mind? And body? What did that mean? Already the girl was consumed by total confusion. ... And her cookies! Why did her... they were left behind! No, they would go to waste and-

Suddenly a tray landed on her head, slide off, and hit the ground in front of her. Miranda yelped again and rubbed her head... and then quickly realized what had just happened in spite of the sore sport on her skull. Her tray of cookies had, somehow, managed to follow, and miraculously not fall off the tray and all over the ground. Miranda relaxed. Good, they wouldn't be wasted! ... Oh wait she was still in some weird place with weird messages now. Well that was kind of very worrying, really. The brown-haired girl rubbed her head weakly and looked around.

"E-er... hello...?"

Tamara Winters, Abandoned Castle

"...Yep, definitely daydreaming."

After the fall, Tamara could do little more than just stare at the castle off in the distance. It looked rather impressive, if a little ominous. It did seem to be the only sign of civilization in this dreamworld, though, so after a little hesitation she began walking towards it. After only a few steps, more dialogue boxes appeared in front of her eyes, not only justifying her instincts but flashing up some rather unusual information...

"Maou's Mind... And Maou's Body?" Thinking out loud, she continued her ascent to the castle. "This is one weird dream..." Shrugging, she continued, noticing that she wasn't the only one heading there. Ahead of her were several other people, all wearing modern clothing that looked jarringly out of place in this setting... Although since this was definitely a dream, it didn't really have to make sense, right?

"Like hell they're going to beat me there, though!" A wide grin spread across her face as she began to run full speed, not really paying attention to anything other than her destination... Leading her to crash right into someone who had just been standing around in confusion, knocking both of them to the ground. It took a moment for Tamara to realize what had happened, and whilst she initially assumed that the softness of the impact was due to this being a weird dreamworld, it didn't take long for her to notice that her head was nestled between Miranda's (as that was her name, although Tamara didn't know this yet) ample cleavage.

"...W-wah! Sorry, sorry, um... I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to, um..." Cheeks reddening in embarrassment, Tamara hastily got to her feet, offering a hand to the girl she'd knocked over. "Um, let me help you up and, um... Quickly since I need to, um... The castle, um... Maou, whatever that means so um... Yeah!"

"Weeeeeeee!" Giving her Onii-chan back his freedom through simply loosening from him they both fell through the same strange hole that just appeared! Thanks to the complex, scary and strange rules of physics the white-haired girl separated herself from her only friend even further.

*OMPF* Hitting the ground, Yuno would have been sure to be dead, not like she cared, but alas, those strange and scary physic things weren't in place anymore, but pain was received. "Urgh..." Slowly getting back on her feet Yuno found herself in a strange place she had never seen until now. Then again this could just be about every random place in the world. Not given many seconds of thoughts her attention shifted as more messages appeared!

Maou. You have gained the Maou Arts: [Maou's Mind] and [Maou's Body].>

"And so the heroine decided to say "Screw it!" and turned sides, now belonging to the evil people. A new identity? A new name? Petta? Maybe, maybe not. For now though, she simply decided to follow her suspicious guiding quest." With that Maou Yuno had read over the other messages as well, and with the description of Maou's Mind no one would call her crazy anymore, right? Right. While excited and, probably thanks to Maou's Mind, calm about all, Yuno was a bit dissatisfied about the line "like a game." As much logic as games were able to deny, it still put chains on freedom. But whatever. Giving out a cheerful "Onwards to victory!" She beelined for the castle as much as possible.

Right there were other people too? Oh well.

As Shujiko pondered the origin of the mysterious text box, she noticed something unusual about her running. Mainly that she was no longer running, but falling for some reason. It took a moment to register, but when it finally did, she let out a frightened shriek. And promptly hit the ground with a dull thud. And a delayed groan of pain.
"...Wha...?" Shujiko slowly rose to her knees, shaking slightly from the shock. The strange text had been replaced, now saying things about a tutorial quest... and new skills?

[Maou's Mind]? [Maou's Body]? What was all that supposed to mean? New skills? But... She still didn't know what a maou was! her mind and body hadn't changed, right? Why couldn't the disembodied words floating in her vision make more sense?

Speaking of sense, where was she, anyway? This didn't look anything like home.

There were others in the area, too. Apparently having the same problem as herself. Well, except that one girl whose face was buried in another's chest...

Realising she was staring rather intently, the flushed teenager quickly ripped her gaze away from the pair, and instead focused on the rest of the group. What were you supposed to say in this situation?

"...hi there?" Shujiko said in the most cheerful voice she could muster at the moment.