8 Chapter 0: Another Day in Neverland (7)

In front of Emiya was her underclassman, whom she had bonded greatly with over the last year, and her classmate, whom she had the most feud with, yet still somehow managed to remain one of her closest friends.

Thanks to Zoe's reading, they were able to track down Emiya and get a hold of her. After all, Zoe was not going to quit despite Lloyd's earlier claims about Emiya being fine, she had to go through the extra mile to come to her friend's aid.

Lloyd extended a helping hand to get Emiya off the ground, but she pushed it aside. She was more than capable enough to help herself up, and so, she brought herself to her feet and started dusting off her skirt. After being done with that, she placed both her hands on her hips in a posing fashion with a huge grin on her face, as if to show that she was victorious. Victorious in what? Lloyd and Zoe had no idea.

— Always the oddball in the room.

Lloyd looked at the woman on the ground, who was knocked unconscious and seemed happy with her deep sleep off to dreamland. The first thought that came to his mind was that Emiya might have knocked her out, since it was not that far-fetched to think that. Emiya was once suspended for a month after going up against the gym teacher in a one-on-one fight and putting him out in the hospital for weeks, just because he wouldn't let her skip for the day.

"Coulda went easy on the poor woman, don't you think?" He expressed his displeasure.

"Wait wait! Hold it—" Emiya backed away, "That... wasn't me!!! I'd never hurt someone and you know it. She just passed out on her own. What do you think I am? A thug?"

"(Not really, just a blockhead…)"

A huge smile formed on her face, but one could easily tell she was extremely irritated. She cracked both her knuckles together. "Looks like you need a piece of my mind, Loy! How about that thing I mentioned on the phone earlier?"

"See what I mean." He looked at Zoe, who just stood idly watching both of them, to try and prove the validation of his words.

"You're the only person I wouldn't pull any punches from."

Without waiting for him to take the defensive, Emiya immediately swung her fist at him but he dodged it in the last second.

"Ha! Not gonna be easy to take me down—"

"Think fast!" She quickly swept her leg at his feet right after her initial punch failed. This time, it didn't take a second for him to be taken aback and fall to the ground. "Gotta be prepared for mixups. Now get up or—"

"Fine… I give, I give. Ow… (I think I broke my ass.)" He tried not to think about the pain too much. Falling on solid concrete was no joke after all, especially on a sensitive part. It still wasn't anything a trip to the infirmary wouldn't fix.

This short moment of "normality" came to a halt when the dragooun's roar from far away brought them all back to reality. That great threat was still at large. It seemed like the other side of the team was just as short on luck as them. Defeating a beast like that wouldn't come with luck of course — nothing ever would — they needed to rely on their wits to achieve such a miracle.

Unlike Lloyd and Emiya, Zoe had much more of close observation on the scene from afar, thanks to her merit as a reader — she would make a fine archer. From where she stood, she could see Shogo traversing from point to point to keep the beast from leaving that block, Nathan writing constantly and trying his best to pin it down with aid of his surroundings, and Juno flying on her owl with her "book of spells" in her hand.

"Scores aside, we really have to do something, guys." She turned to face her friends, "We don't have much time."

"How about…," Lloyd tried to work his brain for a good minute, and then he hit his grip and palm together as if a light bulb had been lit, "We bait it to another location, then we all attack at once."

"I… don't think that's a good idea." Zoe tried to voice her opinion.

"Yeah, bait it where exactly? You seem to be forgetting the fact that we can't even get it to slow down." Emiya shared Zoe's answer.

The whole point of the evacuation zone they were currently in was to trap the dragooun inside and contain whatever damage occurred within. If by some method, they were to move it to another location, which was likely to be outside of the zone, they would endanger citizens and put the rest of the city at risk.

"Really thought I had it there for a second." Lloyd rubbed the back of his head with a disappointed expression, "Then I guess… we try talking to it? Calm it down? Explain the whole schmuck to it?" He pictured himself and the others casually chatting with the almost thirty-feet long beast.

"You can't be serious right now."

Just like Zoe before, Emiya's expectations began to lower deeply. She didn't expect much from the beginning, but she didn't expect him to be this bad at thinking of something. Yes, she might not be any better at devising plans but at least she was quiet about it.

"I mean, do any of you speak dragon?"

"No!" Both Emiya and Zoe said in unison.

— Okay, shesh, I get it. They love pointing out how bad my ideas are. But what's wrong with having a talk with a dragon? Just imagine how cool that would be… chilling with a dragon. Casual racism is no joke to my flying reptilian friends, huh. Wait! Are dragons reptiles?

"Maybe this random woman will talk in her sleep and give us a better plan than whatever you're thinking of," Emiya deeply sighed. "Honestly, Nate or Shogo would be a better fit than this sorry excuse of a—"

"Let's call Gilgamesh!" Lloyd presented his last resort happily.

"Like hell, we will!!!" She shouted, "No way are we letting that condescending so-called king help us. He won't talk to us even if we licked his shoes, and I sure as hell am not going to do that!"

It was quite a convincing point. The King of Fables would be the last person to ever be called in the time of need, especially since he was from Wonderland. And it wasn't like Lloyd did not have that knowledge, in fact, he despised him as much as Emiya did, but with the situation being as it was, he didn't have much of a choice.

"Please… just… stop." Emiya rubbed her eyes, which were beginning to tire. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if she got a headache all of a sudden. "Why does it have to be a dragon? Why can't we track something normal for once? Hell, since nothing is normal in this city, I'd rather take on a zombie-sized chicken instead of that monstrosity. Ugh… I hate this so much."

Then it all clicked to Lloyd… the perfect plan.

His slight laughter started being audible with every passing second before turning into something completely maniacal. It was as if he was a self-proclaimed mad scientist who just discovered how to overcome the mystery of time paradoxes. And instead of talking of his plan to a dead phone like said scientist, he was just mumbling to himself.

Emiya and Zoe were absolutely convinced that he had finally lost it. Emiya was even thinking of restoring her energy just to knock him out — that would be a big enough win in her book.

Rather than consulting the others on what he should do, Lloyd went ahead with his plan with all the confidence in the world. He had the entire district pictured in his mind. Every street, exit, alleyway, and corner, he visualized it all, credit due to Zoe's helping hand. From up top, aside from the many side roads, the town was essentially one huge cross with four exits.

— Spot on!

Lloyd began to act in a frantic and unusual manner; it worried both Emiya and Zoe, who were standing a couple of feet away from him. He held his pen up high and started writing at his own pace instead of increasing his speed. With all this excitement within him about to swell up, he couldn't hide his once again maniacal laughter, as if he was Frankenstein about to awaken his monster.

"Hey hey!" Emiya felt that something wasn't right, that Lloyd was on the verge of starting another disaster as per his fame. She ran to his side, "What in the world are you going to do?"

"Exactly what you thought up!" Lloyd answered, not stopping his writing.

"Huh?!" She was as confused as ever.

"You said it yourself…," he sensed that she didn't get what he meant so he needed to remind her, "What would you rather fight? A hundred chicken-sized zombies? Or ten zombie-sized chickens? Seems like a pretty easy answer for you, huh."

"What are you even on about—" She could not comprehend the fact that he was seriously asking such a question. The last time she was asked something like that was back in elementary school. There was no time for games like that, but knowing Lloyd, he wasn't going to settle unless he got an answer. "Ugh… I guess… ten zombie-sized chickens? Is that correct?"

"There is no correct answer actually…" He laughed.

"Then why did you—"

"It all depends on perspective!" He interrupted, "You see, you chose the latter answer because you're afraid you'd be overwhelmed by the former. Most people would go for the same answer as well. It's a matter of "picking your own size"... kinda. Having those little dead pests crawl all over is a nightmare for us. So what are the odds that'd be the same for that dragooun?"

Zoe stepped forward. "You're not thinking of—"

"But I am! We're the size of ants to that thing. Push an unstoppable horde at it, and we got it within our grasp."

"So what?" Emiya scratched her head, "You're going to anger chickens and call the rest to attack or something? — Like in The Legend of Zelda."

"Even better…"

The others could not see what he wrote as well as he could, but they noticed that it surpassed more than one paragraph — nothing less from a world-builder. True to his element, he was writing a full-blown scenario to unleash onto reality. His great story came to an end at last when he finished writing the last sentence.

As soon as he did, the scenario began to take place. The ground beneath their feet shook with great pressure, yet there was no sign of it rupturing anytime soon. Emiya was certain the quivery roads she passed by earlier were down to the core by now. However, the several people right behind the barrier seemed unaffected by the earthquake. Lloyd had a semblance of common sense to keep the damage within. Still, he did not account for all those inside, and certainly not the passed out woman, leaving the job for Emiya to hold the woman and keep her from any potential danger.

There was no telling what would happen next, the others still didn't understand Lloyd's plan. All they could do was watch in silence.

It was around the afternoon so the sun was sure to be setting soon, but something unexpected happened instead. The sky turned to a shade of grey as more clouds began to form and gather together, absolutely blocking the sun. Followed by that was the sudden change in weather, a strong gust of wind roared right through, almost lifting Zoe, who was quite light for a girl her age, off her feet.

"Woah woah! L-Lloyd, what are you doing?" Zoe was alarmed.

The gusts of wind shifted around the entire district, creating a typhoon. But rather than the typhoon sweeping everything in its way, it formed only around the town's boundaries, trapping whoever was still within the town and blocking out everyone on the outside. Nothing from the outside, not the barrier, not the buildings, and certainly not the people, could longer be seen. It was all covered by the constant stream of draught.

It was then that Emiya realized, "This isn't a summon scenario…," she held her arm against her face to shield herself from the wind, "We're being sucked into a folio. This is a Reality Shift!!!!"

[Reality Shift]

A Reality Shift enabled a writer to shift to their own parallel world or void within their own folio. This was the very conclusion of a Recto-Verso Expansion method, to take over the page (the territory around) completely and transform one's folio into a separate dimension. Inside, the writer had the absolute freedom with their writing, to write whatever they want without risks.

Lloyd's eyes lit with joy and resolve, the bright deranged smile still on his face.

"(Arise!)" He whispered.

Both Emiya and Zoe backed away to the edge. Although the stream of wind was directly behind them, it was as tough as a brick wall, and it wasn't going to draw them in either.

Just as they felt safe, a hand grabbed Zoe's shoulder. She felt her entire body freeze at that moment, she was petrified. She could not turn and look behind her like she had been held back by some sort of force. She could only see Emiya, who was beside her and seemed to be in the same situation. The rancid hand was relentlessly shaking, desperately trying to make her turn in its direction. She glanced over to her shoulder. There it was, the hand was entirely stained in blood, like something out of a horror movie. Somehow, the shock from her reaction was able to alleviate her paralyzed state, making her able to turn around to see what laid behind her. Zoe turned around, with the mindset of facing something terrifying, a monster or a disfigured creature, but instead, she was faced with something totally unexpected.

A girl drenched entirely in blood. She scarcely had any distinctive features.

Another girl of similar features hung onto Emiya's arms. Her legs were shaking continuously as if she were on the brink of collapse. It looked directly at Emiya's eyes, staring at her, peeking into her soul, almost terrifying her.

"This is…" Emiya faltered in her words.

The girl had tried to open her mouth, possibly to speak, but instead, started coughing and hacking blood all over Emiya's clothes, who backed away immediately in disgust.

The two strange girls facing both Emiya and Zoe eventually stood up properly, if you can call their broken backs proper. They began to walk along, passing the girls and moving forward.

What came after was shocking… several people, of similar disfigured features to the girls, began emerging from within the stream and walked forward in unison, heading toward Lloyd's direction. Most of them varied in appearances, some were dressed in modern clothes and looked like average citizens, others seemed like knights from the middle ages. It truly was an army.

"You saw them, right?" Zoe uttered in complete disbelief.

"Yea… They're all dead…" Emiya remarked.

It didn't take a smart person to piece everything together and figure out what those people were.

"Arise!" Lloyd said it again, this time aloud.

[Reality Shift: Chasm of the Undead]

Out of all possible scenarios to come up with, Lloyd chose to go with summoning hordes upon hordes of the undead, all under his control. It wasn't anything dangerous as it was terrifying to the uninvolved. These undead people, zombies, were projections first and foremost, they had no effect on humans — that doesn't mean the undead did not exist outside of Neverland, however.

Lloyd summoned these great masses of the undead with the sole purpose of enveloping and capturing the dragooun, like ants crawling together on an object to collectively carry it. Their number almost amounted to infinity, so there was no escape for the dragooun. Even if it knew how to fly, it was trapped within Lloyd's folio, within the chasm filled with the undead. It would only be a matter of time for the dragooun.

"Set forth with my accursed blessing, my great army!" Lloyd cried out with great enthusiasm. The end of his jacket was flying in the direction of the wind, feeding into the dramatic ambiance. "Fight for us, and regain your honor. Fight for me, and I will hold your oaths fulfilled! Fight, and I shall release you from this living death! (I've always wanted to say that)"

"This? This is your great plan?!!" Emiya shouted. The sound of the wind was too strong. "Seriously… What is wrong with that guy?"

With seemingly no end for them, the great army marched forward, setting their sights on the dragooun, which was on its way to the wide intersection (the designated location to corner it from all sides).

The girls felt lost among the crowd, even when they stood still in their places. Emiya was thankful the woman on her back was not conscious to witness all of that; something worse than passing out could have happened to her if so.

Both of them abruptly found themselves being lifted off the ground and levitating until the marching army was right beneath their feet. Right in front of them was Lloyd, who had created this concealed surface similar to the one before to help them cross the road easily along with the army.

His sly and confident smile still on his face, Lloyd swung his arm to the direction forward, prompting his friends to follow him. Emiya and Zoe looked at each other, still in disbelief. They hesitantly followed right behind him, as they did not have much of a choice in the first place.

It was all utterly ridiculous, yet amazing all the same.

Even as he was above the army, Lloyd strode ahead of them, solidifying his truth as the army's leader. He bore great courage. All he needed next was a cape and he would be befitting to that of the king of conquerors. With each step, he could see the rest of the army marching forward from each side of the town, all determined on the town's square.

"When I said "zombies," I didn't mean it in a literal sense…" Emiya figured Lloyd came to think of his plan because of what she said earlier.

She was still not convinced it might work. There was still the possibility for the dragooun to push on the offensive and take out the army with ease, but then again, there was no end to these… undead.

If only by a fraction of a possibility, this plan was going to work.