The Emergence

"You are going to sleep over at a boy's house? Wait no, a boy's dorm?"

Kalle stood up from his seat and stared at his little sister.

"A boy's dormitory? A place filled with boys?"

Vella ignored Kalle's question until she finally finished changing.

"Yes. What's wrong?"

Staring at her with wide-open eyes, Kalle opened his mouth.

"Everything's wrong. You're not going to sleep at a boy's dorm."

"I did not ask for your permission. I'm only telling you where I will be going." Continuing her preparation, Vella put on her makeup and got ready to go out.

"No. You're not going."

Once again, Vella ignored him.

After she finished getting ready, Vella got up and walked to the door.

But before she could take a step closer to the door, Kalle blocked her way, standing right in front of the door.

"What are you doing!?" She shouted, trying to get past him.

But Kalle stood still, not letting her walk past him even a step away.

"If you want to sleepover at a girl's house I wouldn't say a thing and let you do what you want.

But no way in hell I would let those animals get close to you and let you sleep in their den."

"You didn't even know them! How could you say those things!?" Vella tried pushing Kalle out of the way.

Not budging even an inch, he kept her in front of him.

"That's exactly why. I don't know any of them. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Nothing will happen! We will only have fun!"

"No means no. As long as I'm still taking care of you, I won't let you get into any dangerous situations."

Vella glared at her older brother, her hands balled up into a fist as her whole body started shaking.

"You are not my parents! You don't have any right to tell me not to do something!"

Hearing her words, Kalle stayed silent for the first time and didn't give her any answers right away.

Instead, he stared at his little sister, his chest welled up with unknown emotions.

Every breath that he took felt constricted as he felt something pressing down against his chest.

In the end, he could only mutter a single sentence.

"Of course, I'm not them. I'm not abandoning anyone."

Kalle then turned around and left through the door, leaving Vella behind the door, standing still as she realized the words that had just come out of her mouth.

Kalle decided to walk around the apartment complex. He needed the fresh air to calm down his mind and free up his pent-up chest.

Kalle massaged his head. He had been having headaches since morning and it didn't go away even after a whole day of working. And it only got worse after what had just happened.

He didn't want to yell at his sister so he decided to leave altogether before he did things that he didn't want to do.

Kalle was working hard for her. 

He dropped out of college so that he could work full-time and provide for himself and her.

When people his age getting their degree, going out partying, and dating, Kalle was stuck with construction work and other side jobs so that she would be able to go to school and they could continue living properly.

A roof above their heads, proper food on their table, clothes to keep them warm, and a future for Vella. Those were the only goals Kalle had ever since their parents left their responsibilities and left him and his sister alone.

He promised himself that he would take care of Vella and give her all the love and attention that their parents never gave them.

But seeing the person you cared for, the single person who actually matters to you shouting at your face when you want to protect them, Kalle couldn't help but feel a sharp pang in his chest.

'Did I do something wrong…?' 

Kalle then massaged his head again.

"This damned headache…" 

Contrary to his hope of getting fresh air to relieve his headache, the pain that he felt only got worse instead.

Kalle knew that he couldn't afford to get sick as he couldn't miss a single day of work lest he wanted to eat instant noodles for a whole week, so he turned and walked towards the drugstore.

Getting on the busy street, Kalle's headache became more and more apparent as he couldn't lift his head up anymore and was forced to walk while looking downward.

He was walking in the middle of a crossroad when suddenly his headache took a turn for the worse.

His headache became several times worse and he was barely able to stand.

Not finding anything to grab onto, Kalle finally fell down, kneeling on the road on all four as he struggled to keep his head from falling to the ground.

People around him saw a young man kneeling on the floor, clutching his head as he tried to keep his body from lying flat on the asphalt road.

Unfortunately for him, the headache only got worse and Kalle finally lost the strength on his limbs and completely fell down.

His two hands clutching his head and his knees curled up to his stomach.

'What is wrong with me…'

However, this time, the people who looked at Kalle couldn't even focus on the young man as their heads were struck with a sudden headache that stopped them on their feet.

The people that walked stopped and clutched their heads, the ones in their vehicles also squeezed their breaks, preventing themselves from crashing into the things in front of them.

Several accidents happened because the severe headache appeared so sudden and it affected everyone, but none of the people even cared about the accidents because the pain in their heads was simply unbearable.

Fortunately, it finally came to an end.

Just like how it appeared suddenly, it also ended abruptly as the people soon noticed the chaos that had happened all around them.

Kalle had also been freed from his headache.

However, unlike everyone else who went into sudden panic when noticing the cars crashing into each other and people lying on the road, Kalle noticed something else.

Seeing the world around him, Kalle could feel an unknown presence that wasn't there before.

He didn't know what it was, but he was sure that there was something that wasn't there before existing all around him.

But before Kalle could figure out what it was that he felt, his attention was pulled in a certain direction as he felt a fluctuation of the unknown matter.

Right in the dead center of the crossroad, which was a few meters away from his position, Kalle felt a huge fluctuation of the unknown matter that he felt.

It kept getting thicker and thicker and Kalle could feel his spine crawl up just from feeling it.

Sensing something was up, Kalle got up and tried to leave the place as soon as possible.

But before he could turn his body and walk away, he felt the concentration of the unknown matter blow up, just like a balloon that was filled with too much air.

Instead of creating a large popping noise, Kalle saw with his two eyes how a visible red swirling matter appeared out of thin air from the concentration of the unknown matter.

He had never seen something like that before in real life, but the shape was similar to a portal that he had seen in comic books before.

And just like those portals, the red portal in front of him soon spitted out creatures that Kalle also recognized as something from those comic books.

With a small body as big as a middle schooler, green skin, pointy ears, and a beastly look, Kalle recognized them as something that was called goblins.

The goblins held wooden clubs in their hands and they looked all around them with curiosity as they arrived in a completely new environment.

The people who saw those goblins also observed them as they had never seen something like them before.

However, those curiosities soon disappeared when the first goblin swung his wooden club.

Their body might be little and their wooden club could barely reach a person's head.

But when they jumped and smashed the person closest to them straight on his head, the man's head broke like a watermelon and red blood splashed everywhere.

"AAHHHHH!"

Starting from the first scream, even more chaos descended on the place as people began running away from the place as fast as their feet could take them.

And that doesn't exclude Kalle.

'I have to get Vella away from here as soon as possible.'

It was the first thought that he had when he saw what those goblins had done.

But before he could take a step away, Kalle felt a hand grab his feet.

"Help…"

Turning his head, Kalle saw a girl about his sister's age lying down after being pushed by everyone else and fell headfirst to the road.

Blood could be seen on her forehead and it kept trickling down as she tried to grab anything that her hand could reach.

And in this case, it was Kalle's feet.

It was one thing seeing someone in an unfortunate circumstance from a distance and another thing seeing it happen right in front of your eyes.

And despite his want to run as fast as possible and get his sister right away, Kalle couldn't just ignore the girl.

"Get up!" 

Kalle hurriedly turned back and helped the girl up and started leading her away from the place.

Unfortunately, all the other people had long started running and the two of them had a very late start.

And right now, the two of them were the closest people that stood near the goblins.

Which made them their next target.

Noticing this, Kalle hastened his feet and urged the girl to move faster.

Unfortunately, the goblins weren't foolish.

When they saw their prey trying to run away, one of them threw their wooden club towards the two humans and it hit its target.

Kalle, who had his back hit by a wooden club that could somehow break someone's bones easily, was soon sent crashing onto the ground along with the girl.

Kalle had never been hit so hard before in his life.

He felt the air leaving his lungs as he tried to catch his breath while lying face down on the ground.

Kalle heard the goblins' footsteps closing on him and he flipped his body upward.

He had planned to see what happened first to formulate a plan to run away.

But he never got the chance to do that as a goblin had walked right in front of him, its club halfway towards smashing onto Kalle's head.

Staring at the wooden club coming straight onto his face, time seemed to slow down as Kalle saw the wooden club coming down in slow motion.

He knew what happened to the man who had his head smashed into countless pieces.

And it was about to happen to him too.

'I can't leave Vella alone…'