The truck struck her full force and everything ended in an instant.

Mark kept staring at the site of the accident, unable to look away, until the Demon Lord’s voice pulled him from his trance.

"You know," she said quietly, her eyes fixed on the street. "Many times I wished I had really died that day."

"...Why?"

"Because that day was when the real nightmare began..."

The Demon Lord snapped her fingers again and the scenery changed once more.

The early-morning street, the convenience store, and the body on the pavement faded away, replaced all at once by a completely different place.

Now they found themselves in an enormous cavern, with damp rock walls faintly reflecting the light of some glowing crystals.

The air felt cold and the distant sound of dripping water echoed throughout the space.

And at the center of that cavern was a group of seven people.

Mark studied them one by one.

There was an elf with light green hair, wearing silver armor that glinted faintly.

Beside him, a woman with wolf ears and long hair that mixed black and white strands.

A bald, stocky dwarf with an enormous hammer slung across his back.

A lizard man covered in green scales, tall and imposing.

And three humans: a woman holding a bow, and two men, one dressed in the dark, fitted clothes of an assassin, and the other, noticeably taller and paler, wrapped in a black cloak that covered almost his entire body.

All of them stood in a semicircle, looking down at something lying on the ground in front of them.

And that something was the Demon Lord, or rather, Mary.

Though she looked a little different.

Her clothes were torn in several places, and the horns growing from her head were smaller than the ones she had now.

She lay on the ground, completely unconscious.

"Did any of you see her when we passed through here the first time?" the armored elf asked, watching the body cautiously.

"No..." the woman with the bow replied, shaking her head. "We came through here just an hour ago and there was nothing."

"Then she appeared out of nowhere," the dwarf murmured, crossing his arms. "Same as the rest of us."

"Do you think she’s like us?" the wolf-eared woman asked, leaning down a little to get a better look. "You know... a reincarnated."

"It’s the most likely possibility..." said the man in the black cloak, in a deep, measured voice.

"Should we wake her?" the assassin asked. "We can’t leave her lying here. If she wakes up alone in a place like this, she’s going to panic."

"Carefully," the elf warned. "We don’t know how she’s going to react. The last thing we need is to scare her even more than she’s already going to be."

Then the lizard man stepped forward, but before he could do anything, Mary woke up.

Her eyelids fluttered before opening fully, and seeing the circle of terrifying creatures surrounding her, she reacted instantly.

"Wh-what...?!" Mary shot upright, scrambling backward. "Who the hell are you people?!"

Her voice came out high-pitched, full of panic, her eyes darting from face to face searching for a way out.

"Easy, easy," the archer woman said, trying to calm her. "We’re not going to hurt you. I promise."

"Stay away from me!"

"Listen, I know none of this makes sense to you right now, and you’re probably terrified," the elf cut in calmly, crouching down to her level. "That’s completely normal, we all went through the same thing."

"..."

"But I need you to calm down and give us a moment to explain what’s happening. Can you do that?"

Mary looked at each of them in turn, still breathing hard, but none of them made the slightest move to attack her or took on a threatening stance.

They simply stayed where they were, watching her with expressions that, however strange, didn’t seem hostile.

And little by little, her breathing began to settle.

"...Fine," she said finally, her voice still shaking. "What the hell is going on?"

The elf and the archer exchanged a look, and then it was she who spoke.

"There’s no easy way to say this," the archer began gently, "so I’ll say it straight... you’re dead, or, well, you were before you reincarnated." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

After that there was a silence, until Mary let out a nervous laugh.

"I reincarnated?" she repeated in disbelief. "Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"It’s not a joke," the dwarf said.

"Oh sure, and I guess now you’re going to tell me I’m the chosen one of some prophecy or some stupid thing like that..."

The assassin let out a sigh and, without saying anything, rummaged through his clothes until he pulled out a small hand mirror.

"See for yourself," he said, holding it out to her.

Mary hesitated, but ended up taking the mirror with trembling hands, and the moment she looked at her reflection, she froze completely.

The face looking back at her wasn’t her own.

It had finer features and an almost unreal beauty, with white hair falling over her shoulders, while two small horns sprouted from her head.

And almost immediately after the initial shock, her mind clicked.

"No... it can’t be," Mary murmured, touching her face with her fingers, feeling beneath them the features she had only ever seen on a screen. "This is my... this is the character I..."

The mirror trembled in her hand.

Those around her exchanged knowing looks.

They had all gone through that exact same moment of shock, that same denial followed by overwhelming certainty.

"I know it’s not easy to take in," the wolf-eared woman said in a kind voice. "It was hard for all of us to accept too... You feel like you’re dreaming, don’t you? Like at any moment you’re going to wake up and none of this will be real."

Mary didn’t respond, just kept staring at her reflection, lost in it.

"But this is real," the woman continued. "And the sooner you accept it, the easier everything that comes after will be."

The wolf woman offered her a hand.

"Come with us," she said with a kind smile. "We have a camp not far from here. There we can explain everything calmly and answer all your questions. What do you say?"

Mary looked at the offered hand and, after a long moment of hesitation, took it.

The elf and the wolf woman carefully helped her to her feet, steadying her when her trembling legs threatened to give out.

And little by little, the entire group began to move away from the spot, guiding the confused and frightened Mary toward the camp.

Mark watched how that group of strangers treated Mary with calm and patience despite her having screamed at them in terror minutes earlier.

"They seem pretty kind..." he murmured, watching them walk away.

"They were, weren’t they?" the Demon Lord replied beside him, her voice strangely soft. "I thought exactly the same thing back then."

"What do you mean by that?"

She didn’t look away from the figure of her past self, slowly disappearing into the darkness of the cavern, supported on the shoulders of those strangers.

"You’ll see..."