Lost Realm – 01

Ch. 1 The Beginning

–
Another day; another paycheck consisting of exactly minimum wage (a grand total of nine dollars and fifty cents an hour). At least it was better than just about every other state out there. This job was in DC after all. Still, minimum wage wasn’t much to be thankful for, as it barely paid for the daily necessities every human being needs.

Even so, Rainier Forrester was thankful simply to have a job. Although supposedly the recession in the states was receding, it still didn’t mean there was a great surplus of jobs. ‘Can’t help it, I won’t be able to raise my wages or get a better position unless I keep this job for a few more months.’

Rainier thought his job was terribly boring but easy, which in a way was a blessing. He didn’t really have to focus on his job that much and could space out, imagining interesting things. Escapism, one of man’s greatest mental strategies.

Rainier imagined everything and anything possible gathered in one world. Things like science and magic coexisting in a world of adventure and prosperity. Fantastic races like elves and goblins doing battle against an army of robotic automatons. He even imagined himself in that world, as a hero donned in epic armor and holding a fearsome bastard sword in one hand and a ball of fire in the other.

Of course escapism was purely a tool to ignore reality, the dreary bland existence that reality is. Rainier realized this all the same and continued the escapades in his mind.

“Excuse me-” A sudden feminine voice roused him from his dazed state. “I’d like to buy this…”

Rainier opened his lazy eyes halfway and saw a rather cute girl holding a book out to him. His job was a clerk at a book store, and it was as boring as it sounds. He did like the peace and quiet, however.

“’Kiersen’s Guide to Personal Philosophy’, an odd book for someone like you.” Rainier read the title just loud enough for the girl to hear as he passed the book over the scanner.

“Ah, yes, well it’s not actually for me, it’s for my mother. She teaches philosophy and asked me to pick up a book for her that she was interested in.”

Rainier thought the girl looked extremely adorable, though he wouldn’t dream of making any advances without some more information. “You’re a good person, I can’t think of many people who like helping out their parents with such trivial errands.” Rainier himself was the exact same as the person he described. Rather it wasn’t that he hated dealing with other people’s bland tasks, but he refused to do anything with his family.

Basically, his childhood wasn’t a pleasant one. Both his father and mother were heavy drinkers and spent nearly every coin and dollar they made on alcohol, cigarettes, and other such vices. It didn’t take long for them to begin tasting the darker and more addictive pleasures such as drugs and gambling.

Needless to say, Rainier moved out the moment he had himself legally emancipated at sixteen. Thankfully he had a few friends in school whose parents allowed him to stay for periods of time. Rainier was very thankful, but he hated forcing them to deal with his troubles so he moved himself into the cheapest accommodations he could find and was where he was living now by himself.

“Yes, I do what I can to help her.” The girl smiled sweetly which almost made Rainier buckle from its magical beauty.

“That’ll be thirty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. Got a card or are you paying with cash?” Rainier pushed the reference book into a plastic bag and slid it back over the counter he was leaning against.

“Ah, here’s a fifty.” The girl handed over a clean bill  and patiently waited for the change.

As Rainier punched in a few numbers into the register and pulled out the change for the book, he asked, “Do you read books often?”

“Oh yes, I prefer reading over watching shows or movies. I think they provide a more tactile way of acquiring information and interacting with a story when compared to a movie. Of course that doesn’t mean a movie can’t convey a great story.”

Rainier raised an eyebrow. “A fellow kindred spirit of books. Though I don’t read many novels, I like browsing various text books just to learn a few random facts. A good story lasts longer than an hour and a half long movie or forty minute television show.”

While Rainier technically believed that, the main reason he read books much more than watched movies was because of how expensive it was to use. It costs extra electricity to watch TV, it costs money to watch discs on a DVD player, and you have to pay for television channel packages. It simply required too much money for Rainier to bother. Rainier preferred the free things in life. In fact, the only reason he used the internet was because of his less than legal approaching of breaking into his various neighbor’s Wi-Fi passcodes.

“One ten and a penny, there’s your change, would you like the receipt?”

“Hm, just in case I got the wrong book…” The girl slipped the receipt into the plastic bag, accepted the change and flashed another perfect smile. “Thank you for the help, have a good day!”

‘Please come back here again, I will surely ask you out if you do!’ Although Rainier didn’t have a large quantity of money to spend, and generally stayed away from the expensive creatures known as the opposite sex, he still wished to have a girlfriend one day. He didn’t want to be a virgin forever. That girl was far too cute and sweet for her own good and Rainier desperately wished he could see her again. Though woe to him if she already had a boyfriend.

The rest of the day went with little incident or interaction other than accepting customer payments for books, helping them (with futile effort) understand the Dewey Decimal System, helping the people he previously helped find specific books, and eventually talking a bit with his coworkers as he went on break.

In all, it was as boring as always. ‘Maybe I should find a new book before I go?’ It was around nine PM, which was the time the store closed on weekdays. As Rainier was tasked with closing up the store this night, he was one of the last people left in the store. Every once in a while Rainier took home a book, which the store manager was fine with as long as if you returned it the next day.

“What should I get, huh?” Rainier posed the question out loud to himself as he walked through the various sections. He first walked through the fiction section, where he found nothing of interest. Although there was some books Rainier wished to read in the future, nothing piqued his interest.

Eventually Rainier found his way to the reference book section. He was slightly awed by the sheer size of numerous encyclopedia volumes from A to Z. Rainier even owned a set of encyclopedias he rescued from being thrown out by one of his neighbors.

Yet Rainier saw something out of the corner of his eye. In a dusty corner of a shelf, at the very top, lay a very thin book. Purely by the size of the book, it was obvious that it shouldn’t belong among the hefty counterparts in the reference section. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to Rainier if a child climbed the shelves just to put back a picture story in the wrong section out of mischief.

He reached up and pulled the book out by its binding. ‘What the hell?’ His surprise came from the fact that the book he pulled out had only a single page and not a single piece of paper more. It wasn’t that somebody had ripped out the pages, it was that there was literally only a single piece of paper attached to the binding. Also, the single page had nothing written on it.

“Must be some sort of weird joke, a very weird and pointless one.” Rainier rolled his eyes and closed the book, although he stopped when he noticed a hint of black on the supposedly blank page.

Rainier didn’t feel the need to reopen the book, but he did anyway. And what he saw, was his name.

Rainier Forrester- The main character of this story. Born 1995, Died —-. Named after the mountain his father proposed to his mother on. He lived an unhappy childhood with parents who spent their money on drugs and alcohol. Moved out soon after hitting sixteen years old and is now working so that he can live by himself. He wishes for nothing more than to live a life of excitement without being forced to worry about money.

Rainier read the passage that appeared out of thin air on the blank page. The dark ink seemed to appear as his eyes moved from word to word. “Some sort of invisible ink? This is a sick prank, alright who’s doing this?” Rainier inspected his surroundings only to find the stillness and silenced especially reserved for a book store at night. The words continued to appear on the page as if someone was simultaneously writing them down. However this time the words appeared on a new paragraph at the bottom of the single page.

Would you like to have an adventure? An adventure of magic and swords? Of peril and exhilaration? Would you like to meet species and entities unheard of? And would you like to brave danger to bring peace and acquire mystical treasures?

As if Rainier was conversing with the words that appeared, he sighed and replied earnestly, “It’d be much better than this tough life I’ve got now.”

Would you risk life and limb to survive?

“…Definitely.” Rainier answered without hesitation.

Then something burst from the page with the sound of ripping paper and grabbed Rainier by the chin. Rainier grunted in distress as he was violently pulled forward into the book. It felt like his body was being stretched through a vacuum tube. A distorted sound pierced his eardrums, it almost made him deaf. He could hear the cracking of his own bones as he felt his own body bend in ways it shouldn’t. Rainier wanted to cry out due to the extreme pain he felt, but he was unable as he couldn’t breathe.

‘Need air! Let me breathe damn it!’ Rainier thrashed about against the invisible forces holding his body aloft in god knows where. He barely opened his eyes for even a single second before closing them, as he wanted to protect the human body’s most sensitive organs.

Rainier endured this trauma for what seemed like hours, but in reality it was only a single minute. The pain was very harrowing, assaulting his mind in great, distressing waves. It felt far worse than any medieval torture device and there was nothing he can do about it.

“Let it… End. Please…” Begged Rainier to whatever divinity was out there. Then he realized that he could speak.

“It’s… Gone. There’s no more pain!” Rainier thrust his arms out in relief. He felt a warm wind wash across his fatigued body, flooding his muscles with will and energy.

Rainier opened his eyes and looked about his surroundings. Somehow he was no longer in the book store. ‘How the hell did I end up here?’ Rainier found himself in a forest filled with trees. The strange thing was that nearly every leaf had a red color. ‘Wasn’t it supposed to be spring?’

Paying the leaf colors no mind, Rainier began walking in the direction with the clearest path. He had no idea how he got here, the last thing he remembered was reading a strange passage from a nearly empty book. Unfortunately Rainier did not own a phone that could give him a map, not that he would have gotten any service in such a possibly isolated location. It was too expensive to pay for the device and keep the services running for nearly any amount of time.

‘Still, it would’ve been best to acquire a phone for precisely these situations.’ Lamented Rainier with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘Wait a second, there’s that book!’ Rainier picked up the exceptionally thin book which was lying on the ground next to his feet. He opened it up to see the exact same biographic passage about his life.

This was some sort of sick joke being played on him, Rainier was sure of it. Even so, Rainier was positive nobody would go this far just to abandon him and freak him out. Even so, how else could he have gotten here? Eventually Rainier put the book under his arm and set off for a way home.

Rainier walked for some time over numerous shrubs and dead plants. The ground he treaded over seemed rather soft and at times it felt like Rainier was about to sink into the ground and be swallowed by the earth. He heard the chirps and sounds of nature, but it didn’t resemble that which normally went on inside the deciduous forests he had been in the past.
‘Christ, it’s pretty dangerous to walk around when it’s this dark out. Thankfully I’m getting some decent light from the moon.’ When he thought that, Rainier looked upwards and admired the sky.

Yet it looked different than normal. The moon seemed brighter and larger than before, Rainier also didn’t remember there being any rings around the moon. There was also another planetoid hiding behind the moon with a greenish purple tint to it. No, that was clearly not the same night sky from what Rainier remembered.

‘What the hell is happening?!’Rainier took a brisk pace to his stride and moved forward, frantically searching for a sign of civilization.

Eventually his search came to a fruitless end. “Oh shit!” Rainier cursed out loud as his run came to sudden skidding stop. He pushed out dirt and made small divots with his shoes which dirtied his pant legs and shoes. That was a small sacrifice as he managed to avoid certain death.

Rainier stopped at the very precipice of a towering cliff. He was forced to massage the fatigue from his eyes. There was no way what he saw could exist… Rather there was no way it should exist.

Rainier saw amazing things. Things not far off from what he imagined every day at his job in the bookstores. Things you would read about in a book or see in a videogame or movie. Things only possible in the realm of imagination.

Out of a completely random decision, Rainier opened the thin book he had with him all along. He saw a brand new passage appearing over the one with his name.

Ademptis- The name given to the world by the extinct human race. Holds many wonders and dangers that only brave adventurers can survive. It is said that Ademptis has infinite possibilities and is a world that never ends. Many have tried to valiantly live in this world only to perish and turn into a decayed corpse.

Ademptis is home to numerous species, several of which are sentient and intelligent. Although they can still be hostile to whatever they come across, it is a result of being forced to adhere to Ademptis’ harsh standards. Many races that have made their home in Ademptis have gone extinct, most notably the Human, Draconic, Avian, and Terrac races.

The flora of Ademptis can be equally intelligent, depending on the species. Although most types of flora are incredibly dangerous, even going as far to evolve into being dragon eaters. Most flora live static lives, although some have evolved to move positions and travel for to find new sources of sustenance.

The fauna of Ademptis, aside from the sentient species, can be very dangerous, should they be provoked. Although many species are solely herbivorous, they can still defend themselves with lethal precision. The carnivorous species are even more dangerous, evolving to kill with the smallest sting to the largest teeth.

Magic is a special property unique to Ademptis, although how it works exactly has yet to be figured out. It is known that magic can be used by any living thing, should it evolve or learn the ability to wield it for passive or aggressive interests.

“Ademptis…” Rainier stared dumbstruck. He could find no words to describe how he felt. Whether it was horror or curiosity, he did not know. All he could find the courage to do is continue reading every word that appeared on the single page. After the passage about Ademptis finished, more words began appearing for Rainier’s passage.

Rainier arrived in Ademptis initially plagued with the question of why he was brought to this strange new world.

As if he was talking to the book itself, Rainier replied with great lament, “Why the hell are you doing this, of course I don’t want this!”

Although he wanted nothing more than to go home, he had no choice but to survive in a hostile new environment.

“Damn it!” Rainier cursed loudly, slamming the book shut. “Do I really have to survive in this damn situation?! This is clearly no joke anymore… This is was too elaborate to be a joke. I’m so damn screwed- Wha?” Rainier was interrupted by odd sound.

A stoic chant rung loudly throughout the entire region. “Shoom… Shoom… Shoom…” Accompanying the chant were dull thuds resembling footsteps.

True fear seemed to penetrate Rainier’s mind and instinct ordered him to hide behind the thick trunk of a nearby tree. However hope and fear couldn’t sate Rainier, among his desire to survive was simple curiosity.

Rainier peered out with a single eye to see a massive moving object calmly marching past him. It was a giant metal man with steam spouting from his joints and shoulders. It was made of a strange blue metal with shining specks resembling stars dispersed throughout its body. In its left hand the giant held an enduring tower shield, its right tightly held an intimidating gladius. The top of the giants head was completely faceless, the only distinguishing features were a crease where the lips would be, two indentations for his eyes, and bound knot of decorative plumage made of cable. Lastly, there was a set of ladder rungs leading from its right leg up its body and into the back of its head.

The book in Rainier’s had hummed and vibrated under his arms. He opened it up and found a second page bound to the book when there was originally one. There was an inked passage already there, which Rainier instantly began reading.

Magnus, the Steel Deity- A giant metal guardian created by the Dvergar, made out of steel blessed with magical influence. It was tasked with the singular purpose of protecting the Dvergar gem mines. However it was sabotaged by a malevolent member of the race that built it and attacked any living being that held a significant amount of greed for valuables. To this day, it patrols the Dvergar gem mines without rest or fail.

“Shoom… Shoom… Shoom…” The sound itself didn’t seem to originate from the giant’s lips as they were unable to move in the first place. The chant seemed to appear with every step it took.

The ground rumbled and trees shook around Rainier. Red leaves fell into his lap as he made every attempt to not be seen. Off high in the sky, a loud screech could be heard. Rainier snuck a look to see a lizard flying around the clouds. Rainier quickly checked the book with his suspicion proving correct, there was a new passage describing the creature.

Elder Cloud Wyvern- A special breed of wyverns that can walk and live on clouds. While it is a denizen of the sky, it holds a special interest for shiny objects such as coins or gemstones. The Elder Cloud Wyvern is as the same suggests, an older, larger, and more powerful member of the species. Clouds Wyverns normally have long and thin body akin to a snake. Special varieties of the Cloud Wyverns include those who grew up on thunderclouds and thus gain a natural ability to wield thunder magic.

The wyvern coiled its body around a cloud like it was a snake squeezing out life before acting like a spring and flapping its wings towards the ground around the metal giant. The giant stood still for a few moments before releasing its hold on its shield and sword. The two implements didn’t move or fall over, as they were firmly implanted in the ground.

The giant then swung its massive hand and deftly plucked the wyvern out of the sky before it could react and escape with sheer speed. It then crushed the wyvern in its hand and let the corpse fall to the ground where a small crater formed. It re-equipped itself with the sword and shield and once again began its march. “Shoom… Shoom… Shoom… Shoom…”

Rainier was gravely vexed. There was no possible way imaginable to survive an encounter with this supposed Steel Deity. Still he then realized a clue about the words in the entry about the giant. It said that the Steel Deity would attack anything that held a significant amount of greed, considering it was guarding a gem mine. And the entry about the wyvern said that cloud wyverns were attracted to valuable, shiny objects including gems.

It meant that Rainier would not be troubled by the giant if he didn’t care about the gems it guarded. ‘I could care less about gems or valuables at this moment… I just want to live. Perhaps I can use the Steel Deity to my advantage?’

Rainier shook his head. Just because he wasn’t interested in the gems now didn’t mean he wouldn’t be interested in them later. It was far too risky to think about doing.

What Rainier needed was a shelter for tonight. Even a temporary one would be nice. He didn’t know what dangers existed in this world and was certain he would perish if he left himself too out in the open.

Rainier searched for any sort of temporary shelter that would give him protection from wind and rain. He soon came across a tree that resembled a mangrove with its roots embedded in a great boulder. Rainier propped up some sticks and leaves to give him a makeshift camouflage and soon went to sleep.

---

Rainier woke to the sound of a foreign land’s nature. Erratic screams and venting steam rung throughout Rainier’s ears, giving him an uncomfortable awakening. Though it was all white noise by now, Rainier was forced to ignore the noise in order to go to sleep last night.

He was a fair distance away from the Steel Deity, as he could just barely see the top of its plumage over a hill in the horizon. At least he wouldn’t be bothered by it anytime soon.

Rainier ended up deciding to move away from the giant, opting to look for a safer and possibly more permanent shelter until he found a way back home. ‘And that’s if I can find a way home…’

“Grmrmbmblr. Oooh, I’m hungry.” As Rainier instantly began searching for some sort of fruit or vegetable. He was a stranger to survivalism and thus knew nothing about how to identify edibles in the wilderness. Even then, it was a completely new world, such knowledge would be useless.

Rainier noticed a plant with strange purple beans sprouting from its flowers. “Hum, is this edible?” As if in response to his question, the book he had by his side began vibrating.

Rainier opened the encyclopedia and took a look at a brand new entry.

Wretched Poisonfingers- A plant that grows berries shaped like fingers. Its berries are highly toxic, and are known to kill even fairly large beings within seconds of being eaten. Touching the berry is also discouraged as the poison will stick and eventually seep its way into the skin and kill as if you had eaten the berry. The only way to survive touching a poisonfinger is to completely sever the contaminated flesh whether it is a small chunk or an entire limb. Very few species have found a way to withstand or avoid the poisonous substance.
“Whoa!” Rainier immediately recoiled away from the poisonfinger plant. “Damn, I’m so hungry… Wait a second-” Revelation reached Rainier.
He discovered that he could use the encyclopedia book to discern whether a plant was edible or not. That along with the information about the Steel Deity and the cloud wyvern from last night meant that he could most likely acquire information about anything in this world. Rainier had such a useful tool and was nearly about to destroy it last night, he was very glad he didn’t.
‘Even if this book was the catalyst to teleport me to this world, I might as well take advantage of its information. I should keep an eye on it at all times in case a new entry pops up.’
Rainier instantly went about identifying several different plants until he finally came across two different edible ones. He collected the seeds which resembled watermelon sized sesame seeds from a plant called the “Chisis Plant” and the fruit that looked like thick aloe vera leaves from another plant called the “Spiny Sweet Fern.”
He feasted on the seeds and fruit with vigor, restoring much needed energy and nutrients. Rainier finally attained the will to keep on surviving through his situation.
Rainier made a list in his mind about things he needed find or accomplish.
• Find/Create a shelter for a long term stay
• Find/improvise a weapon for self defense
• Scavenge a suitable amount of food
• Search for any friendly species or beings
• Learn magic
Rainier really wanted to do the fifth one on his list too. In fact he really wanted to learn a sort of light or holy magic, as it seemed the most virtuous choice. Being an advocate of light was generally a good thing as far as stories went. Although there were many villains located among priests and churches who used holy magic in stories, it was the general consensus that light equals good and dark equals bad.
While generic as far as Rainier thought, it seemed like the most suitable choice for his situation. Still learning magic was impossible if he didn’t even what sort of form it came in.
Rainier decided to think realistically and focus on the first four items on his list. As he pondered his choice, the encyclopedia suddenly began vibrating. A new entry was forming!
Evoant- The evoant is a type of insect humanoid that evolved over a quick amount of time due to the interference of a powerful archmage. From a distance, the evoant resembles a humanoid from a distance, but it is clear that it is not up close. They are bipedal with two sets of arms for a total of six limbs. Their tiered chitinous armor provides protection far superior to any forged plates of metal. Although they are very susceptible to an attack on their joints.

Evoants form small nomadic groups of up to a hundred to five hundred which scour the areas they move through for food for their queen. Their keen senses assist them in hunting down living animate or inanimate sources of food. Evoants are stronger and faster than normal humanoids. They also have an unusual dislike for entering any unground system that is not their original home. They only make their homes in their original cave system and thus keep on moving until they die of fatigue, of outside influence, or eventually move back to their original home.

Rainier instantly closed the book and focused on his hearing. He heard the chattering of feet running across the ground… Heading for him.

‘Shit!’ Rainier saw one of the evoants that was just described to him, seeing how disgusting they were. He instantly kicked the ground with his feet and tore off down the clearest path in the forest.

Rainier saw similarities in the ants to the insect aliens of various sci-fi movies. Though in the end, the real thing was far scarier than CGI.

“Sksss!” “Skssssss!” “Sssskss!” The screeching sound made by the evoants was horrendous. It resembled the scratching of fingernails on a chalkboard.

The evoants tore off in hot pursuit of Rainier with little regard for their surroundings or energy. The evoant used one hundred percent of its energy from the start in order to catch their prey in a single bound. However that proved meaningless if they were seen before attacking.

Even if they were seen, they had the reflexes and strong muscles to continuously chase their prey until one of the two grew tired and slowed down.

Rainier relied on a powerful burst of adrenaline to keep him going as he ran at full speed. And in a forest as thick and unknown as the one Rainier ran in, it was very dangerous to step first and without thinking or looking where to step.

Rainier ran over rocks and fallen tree trunks. He stumbled over a rock in a perfect circular donut ring which caused him to roll. One of the evoants lunged at him with arms outstretched. It latched onto Rainier, causing the both of them to roll around a short distance before Rainier unintentionally struck the creature’s chin, causing it to smash its head against a rock and leaving behind thick green blood.

Rainier wanted to hurl there and then, but survival was more important. He instantly jumped up and grabbed the encyclopedia by his feet before surging forward. He could hear the evoants crashing against more rocks, it seemed they intended to tackle him while he was on the ground and kill him there, luckily Rainier got up when he did.

The end of the forest was nigh and between numerous trunks was warm light. ‘When the hell are they going to give up? Crap!’ Rainier cursed within his mind when he saw something alarming.

At the end of a forest was a great cliff. Rainier couldn’t stop running, or else the evoants would butcher him. And he couldn’t keep running or else he would fall off the cliff and die horribly.

Rainier felt that his forced adventure in Ademptis had already reached its conclusion along with his life. Still, he refused to give in. Rainier forced himself to slow down slightly and used his feet to skid. The evoants were literally right behind him, he couldn’t screw up even a single small movement or it was game over.

Rainier skidded and diverted his center of gravity allowing him to turn at high speed. His feet just barely reach the precipice, showing just how lucky he was.

Several of the evoants refused to stop their high speed chase and went barreling over the side, flailing around for something to grab on. A small handful of the chasers tried to stop, but they too went falling over the side, desperately scrabbling at the ground with their multiple limbs. However, the majority of the pursuing insects followed pace and quickly corrected themselves in tailing Rainier.

“*Pant pant* This is never ending!” Rainier was running out of steam, he had been running at full speed for a decent among of time which was thoroughly exhausting him.

Rainier saw a depression in the ground ahead only a good meter away from the cliff side. He remembered the part in the encyclopedia about how the evoants hated going in cave systems other than their original home. Perhaps Rainier could find some sort of cave deep enough to stave off his hunters? Rainier hoped that the depression he saw ahead of him was just that ticket.

When he got closer, Rainier saw something like a rigid staircase. Unfortunately he was distracted by his target and failed to notice another two evoants gaining on him. They both sprinted and lunged for Rainier simultaneously, grabbing him by his legs and torso.

“Ugh!” Rainier grunted as his body gave away, almost flying in midair thanks to the strength of the evoants tackle. Thankfully it seemed that the evoants didn’t have the same strength that was proportional to the ants on earth, if such was the case then Rainier would have been killed by the impact.

Rainier crashed and rolled on the ground with the evoant latched on to his chest. The one that grabbed onto his legs snapped its neck as it crash landed directly on the staircase.

The two beings separated upon their second bounce, Rainier groaned in pain as his body bruised itself against the hard stone walls. He heard loud “SKSSS, SKSSS, SKSSSSSSS!” noises as he forced himself back up. It seemed he was correct, the pursuing group of evoants refrained from entering. If they had, Rainier would most likely be dead by now.

“So I’m safe, for now, but what is this place?” Rainier looked around and swallowed in the scene.

The room he was in was completely underground, though light shone in from the entrance a ways away and from mysterious glowing spots in each corner of the room’s ceiling. There was another open doorway where light came in as well as a cold draft. The room itself was made of a pure white stone similar to marble. Surprisingly, there were a few rundown furnishings including a case with a glass door, a few chairs, and an empty barrel.

Rainier rubbed the bruises on his head and body. His skin will definitely take on a new coloring after his tumble. Thankfully he didn’t hurt too much anywhere on his body. Rainier considered himself lucky that he didn’t snap any limbs in his fall.

A quick look through one of the open entrances on the other side of the room revealed a long hallway with several more doorways. Figuring that he had to start somewhere, Rainier chose a door at random and moved inside.

And the room he chose had no wall on the opposite end. It was literally an area open to the outside of the cliff. The room itself had six open stalls, three on each side, with large chains and ropes attached to the back area of each stall. It seemed this area was a sort of stable for flying creatures. On the wall with the door was a tattered and moldy map along with etchings dug into the wall.

Rainier read the etching out loud, “Outpost Roseir is kill.” Despite the bad structure of the sentence, Rainier roughly understood its meaning.

It meant that all of its occupants were killed off, either by murderous means or a monster of sorts. Still Rainier had yet to see any remains of dead bodies.

The encyclopedia hummed again, a new entry was forming.

Outpost Roseir- An outpost built into the cliff with some of its rooms open to the airs for one reason. It was an outpost solely used to carry people up and down the Roseir Plateau using tamed flying mounts. However after the breakdown and eventual extinction of humans, it was reduced to becoming a settlement for surviving humans. Very soon all presence in Roseir was eradicated by an unknown assailant.

Another entry opened up for Roseir Plateau right after.

Roseir Plateau- A highly elevated landmass which spans a large area. It houses several notable mines and settlements and is also home to numerous species. The most interesting feature of the plateau is that there is a hole somewhere in its southern side which is believed to never end. Whether the hole exists or not has never been confirmed.

Rainier closed the book and resumed exploring the underground outpost. He found all the basic necessities for living inside, at least as far as furnishings went. In fact, it was an ideal location for a spot for Rainier to live, for a time at least.

After a short time, a rotten smell wafted past Rainier’s nose. While he wasn’t actually sure, Rainier was certain that this smell was the stench of death. He followed the odor and confirmed his hypothesis.

The stench led to the final room of the outpost Rainier had yet to explore. And what was inside were a pile of bones and rotten flesh. Rainier forced himself away from the disturbing sight and retched up what little contents he had in his stomach.

Rainier pinned his nostrils shut and endured the crypt. If he was going to live here, the disposal of the corpses was a necessary requirement. Something caught Rainier’s eyes first, a peculiar set of bones by themselves in the corner closest to him.

As he got close, Rainier noticed a glinting object sticking out from the skull’s center. It was a dagger, and not a normal one by Rainier’s standards. He pulled it out and moved out of the room to the open stable area so he could examine it without being disturbed by the corpses and air out the stench left on him and the dagger. The fresh air washed off the strench of rotten flesh and dried blood effectively, giving Rainier room to breathe.

The dagger was somewhat simple in design. From hilt to point it was at least the length of a forearm with the blade itself taking up a little more than half the full length. The dagger had no guard and the only mark that showed the separation between the hilt and blade were the surprisingly spotless cloth wrap which was also surprisingly warm. The blade also curved off at the tip, giving it a sort of desert-y appeal.

The blade was very sharp. Rainier even accidentally nicked his thumb while handling the blade. The entire thing was in all clean and deadly. ‘Could this have been the weapon that killed everything in that one room? It seemed that room was very well sealed until I opened it up, or else the flesh would have completely decomposed until the bones and hair was left.’

“Skssssssss… Skssssssss…”

The familiar hissing noise hit Rainier. He spun around to see an evoant holding on to the frame of the entrance to the enclosed room Rainier was in. It sounded rather nervous.

Rainier was finally able to get a good look at the evoants up close. Indeed, the overall shape of the evoants body resembled a human greatly, although its features were anything but. It had black orbs for eyes, two fearsome pincers probably for tearing its food and prey apart, and two sets of antennae on its head where ears would be. Its four hands had three grasping claws each and tiered plating for its exoskeleton.

The evoant finally turned its head towards Rainier and released a formidable screech. “SSSSSSSSSSKAAAAAAIIIIISSSSSS!” The evoant lunged at Rainier without regard for safety.

Rainier clutched the dagger in his hand. Although it was only a small dagger, a weapon was a weapon and it was far better than fighting with his fists especially against the stronger evoant.

Rainier nimbly sidestepped the lunge and tried slashing the evoant as it passed by. However the short reach of the dagger meant that his attack only hit air. Rainier was also a complete amateur when it came to any sort of combat, his movement and mental capacity was hardly conditioned or trained for this sort of ordeal.

The evoant crashed loudly into one of the stable stalls and thrashed about feistily. It screeched again in fear even louder than before, forcing Rainier to clamp his ears shut. The evoant then clambered its way across the floor, dragging itself with its multiple limbs across the floor towards Rainier.

It seemed like the evoant was facing despair and desperation. Rainier fully realized just how much evoants hated being in any sort of underground area other than its original home. It didn’t even matter if the room in question was open to the sky, as the evoant instinctively knew that it was underground.

The evoant pushed itself off the ground and launched its body with its legs, spiraling towards Rainier.

‘The joints! Go for the joints!’ Rainier remembered the weakness off the evoant from the encyclopedia entry and concentrated with the dagger. The evoant’s pincers just barely grazed Rainier’s flank, ripping apart some of his clothing and skin away. Although it wasn’t terribly deep, the cut was just deep enough to draw significant amount of blood.

Rainier jumped after the evoant as it yet again crashed clumsily against the stall on the opposite side of the room. He grabbed onto one of the evoant’s flailing limbs and thrust the dagger into its joint. Green blood began spurting out as Rainier withdrew the dagger and stabbed the creature several more times in different joints along its tiered chitin armor.

Finally, to finish the deed, Rainier pushed up the evoant’s twitching head. It was only weakly resisting at this point and barely managed to lift itself off the ground before dropping due to a lack of strength. Rainier revealed the most vulnerable part of the evoant’s body: Its neck.

He then lined up the dagger and fleshy part of the neck and swiftly sliced the mass of green blood vessels. Mossy green blood stained Rainier’s clothes and splashed against the walls. The blood dripped from the dagger when Rainier lifted it up from the still body of the evoant.

“I… Killed it. Hah… Survival is really tough.” Rainer forced himself to lean back from the evoant against one of the stall’s side wall.

Rainier didn’t feel particularly revolted, in fact, he felt rather thrilled. His heart was beating incredibly fast and his head was filled with relief.

The cut on his waist hurt a little bit, so Rainer ripped off a bit of his clothing and wrapped it around his waist to keep the blood in. He held the dagger before his eyes and eyed the mystical gleam it took with light rays coming in from the missing wall. He stared into the blade, as if nothing else mattered in the world. “It’s… Pretty. It moved so smoothly across the neck and cut so cleanly. There’s not even a drop of blood left on it…”

Indeed, as Rainier observed, the dagger blade was almost completely devoid of the copious amount of blood that was coating it just earlier. It wasn’t that the blood had dripped off, but the blade seemed to be absorbing the viscous liquid.

The blade soon absorbed all of the blood. Rainier found this phenomenon far too curious and bored invisible holes through the blade with his eyes. Rainier wanted nothing more than to just stare at the dagger for a while. It just looked too… Lovely.

Rainer’s attention was forcibly diverted to a vibrating sound on the ground. The encyclopedia had a new entry to look at. Rainier looked back and forth between the book and the dagger, pondering his choices as if he had to choose between life and death.

After much deliberation in his mind, Rainier reached for the encyclopedia and opened it up to read the brand new entry.

Razor of Envy- In order to grant a gift to one of his loyal bishops, the ancient Draconic deity of envy removed one of its fingers, which shrunk into the form of a dagger. The flesh became the hilt and the long fingernail became the blade. The bishop, named Astalto, graciously accepted the gift and offered eternal loyalty to his god as a skilled assassin. Even in death, Astalto serves his god as a reaper of souls.

The Razor of Envy had been passed through several hands after Astalto perished with its most recent holder being a human brought over from another world. It was said to have the ability to absorb partial amounts of strength from beings that the current holder held, granting its user strength and power with every kill. Once the razor passes into a new hand, the strength borrowed from the souls is given back and released. Even with that power, the user must train himself mentally in order to not be overwhelmed by the hatred and enmity of those slain by the blade.

No wonder Rainier felt so immersed with the blade. It was drawing him in mentally. It was dominating his mind with the hate left behind by his first kill of the evoant. Now that he knew about the truth behind the dagger, Rainier wouldn’t fall so easily. In the future… Who knows?

Rainier passed the time with disposing the corpses of the evoant and those left in that room. He left the door open so the smell could be diffused with the open air as Rainier went outside to forage for more food. He collected many more spiny sweet fern leaves and chisis seeds as well as a new breed of plant called the “Rachr Root.”

Rainier ate a heavy lunch to replenish his energy and set to work in making Outpost Roseir more suitable for him to live in. He now always kept the dagger, or razor, with him on his person. He discovered that after killing the evoant and the dagger absorbing a portion of its strength, Rainier did get a little faster. Although it wasn’t very noticeable, he figured that any increase in survivability is better than none. He saw a few animals, but was unwilling to attempt hunting any of them for fear of running into something much more dangerous. Also it seemed that the evoant swarm had already abandoned the area.

Rainier even made a discovery: He found deposits of red crystals jutting out between cracks in the ground. After kicking one of them into another, he saw sparks erupting between the two of them. An entry appeared about the red crystals which Rainier read.

Blaze Crystal- A type of rock formation that is also known as “frozen fire.” Although deposits of it are incredibly rare, it was widely mined for its ability to easily produce sparks and create fires. It is said that placing a crystal in the middle of easily burnable substances and leaving it there in moderately high temperature is enough to make it catch fire. Thus you never see blaze crystals in a warm environment.

Rainier collected a pouch full of the blaze crystals, knowing that he could most likely create a quick fire with them for the cold nights. He could even use that fire to boil water and cook meat should he ever find sources of either. Thankfully for now the spiny sweet fern was juicy enough to satiate his thirst, but Rainier knew he needed to find a source of water eventually.

Rainier wasted the majority of his evening cleaning up the outpost and arranging various furnishings so that he could live semi-comfortably. One of the rooms, which was probably a bedroom for the outpost’s leader had the most extravagant furniture including a queen sized bed, tables, a chair, and a few tattered blankets.

It wasn’t ideal, but it would do for now.

Rainier moved all the cookware to the kitchen room, though he decided it would be too much trouble cleaning all of that stuff now just to roast some plants. He ate what he could and went to sleep an hour later.

---

Rainier woke up to the cooing of pigeons and sounds of the streets. Horns were going off as people commuted to work. Others were busy cooking up their morning breakfast and brewing their daily cup of coffee. Rainier himself decided to have some simple buttered toast. He performed the process and as he was going to take his first bite…

Rainier woke up again, though not to the cooing of pigeons, but the howling of wyverns.

“Even though this was exactly what I daydreamed about nearly every day, I’m not sure if I actually want to go home or not.”

Yes, Rainier did not particularly wish to risk his life in a battle for survival every day. Though neither did he want to go back to his dreary life or boring routine.

Although this dilemma plagued his mind, Rainier knew that he was forced to stay in Ademptis anyways. It wasn’t like he had a way home anyways.

Since the day of discovering Outpost Roseir and slaying the evoant, Rainier had been performing numerous chores to make the outpost suitable for living over a number of days keeping as safe as possible. Today he planned to do something different and dangerous.

Rainier donned his most comfortable clothing. He had spent a portion of one of his days producing clothing and repairing the clothes he initially arrived in Ademptis with.

It was a sunny day with clouds covering a good portion of the sky other than the sun. Even though it was another world, Rainier decided to call the main source of light in Ademptis the sun just for convenience until he knew the name given to it by the residents of this world. There were numerous cloud wyverns nesting in the clouds along with flying creatures of other varieties. Rainier had also accumulated as many different encyclopedia entries as possible so that he never had his information too late in case a dangerous monster attacked him.

Information is key, and the fact that Rainier had some sort of magic book that provided him with an encyclopedia entry about every plant, animal, location, object, and etcetera was a powerful asset.

‘Time to gain some experience…’ Rainier had identified a certain creature called an “Arachnacosa.” It was a disgusting, horrifying looking being that had the upper body of a man and the lower body of a spider.

Arachnacosa- A sentient species that is hostile towards anything other than its own kind. It prefers high altitudes, especially cave systems situated in upper portions of various mountain ranges. It has the upper body of a man and the lower body of a spider due to an abhorrent contract between a human and a spider deity of the Deep Ones. The warrior males fight on the frontlines with both capable melee skills and a ranged acid spit, males are also unable to create webbing. The females act as support, creating webbing to bandage up the wounded and assimilate their conquered territory.

The arachnacosas that Rainier had seen were apparently scouts, as he had yet to see a true army of the species. However, Rainier felt like he needed to eliminate these scouts if he wanted to halt their advance on the plateau. The entry about the species hinted that they liked high ground. The Roseir Plateau was also on a high altitude, thus of course it be within their range of interest.

“Kesh… Krasesh.” Speaking in a language unknown to Rainier, the arachnacosa sniffed the air of his surroundings, knowing that there was a hostile enemy near him.

Rainier needed to gain experience in combat if he was going to survive for much longer in Ademptis. The safest route of doing this would be to oppose a single foe at a time and prepare as much as possible. Aside from its ability to spit acid, the arachnacosa wasn’t very special of an enemy. Even the evoants seemed more deadly with their superior physical force. Although that was only what Rainier hypothesized from the encyclopedia entries about the two.

Rainier pulled out a small blaze crystal from a pouch fastened to his waist. He rolled it around his fingers, eying a particular spot near the arachnacosa. Rainier wasn’t a star pitcher in a baseball team, but he was confident in his snowball aim during winter.

Rainier took aim and drew his arm back, shooting the red crystal just behind where the arachnacosa was standing. The blaze crystal exploded on impact, creating a small crater in the dirt between some tree roots.

“SHAKASH?” The arachnacosa spun around with its pincers at the ready.

Rainier dashed from his hiding place and pulled out the razor. He grabbed the arachnacosa’s head and placed the blade around its neck before deftly pulling it across. The spider monster’s blood began spilling out, staining the ground red.

Rainier breathed out a sigh of relief. He somehow managed to slay the arachnacosa without too much difficulty, a little too easily he thought.

As if the world was reading his mind, Rainier heard a skittering behind him. The sound stopped and began making hocking noises. Rainier jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a splatter or lime green acid which hit the tree next to the arachnacosa’s body.

Rainier turned around to see another arachnacosa scout rushing towards him, nimbly moving its eight legs with precision. Rainier stood himself up quickly getting into a position to defend himself. He pulled his body to the left, avoiding a swipe from the humanoid’s sweeping pincer. Rainier noticed that just under the pincer exoskeleton were several fingers including opposable thumbs.

‘Not that that matters at the moment! Shit, there had to be another one!’ Rainier traded attacks with the monster with neither of them landing any blows.

It seemed the arachnacosa was just as unused to combat as Rainier was, though it had maniacal fervor to match up.

As Rainier ran a few steps away to face his foe again, he noticed something about his opponent’s shape. The arachnacosa had relatively short arms for its larger lower body. The arms could barely reach further than its furthest leg.

Forming a plan in his mind, Rainier advanced with the razor in his hand. The arachnacosa screamed and attacked blindly, angry over his foe continuously running away.

Rainier goaded the monster into advancing further and further until terrain shifted in his favor with unsteady mounds of pebbles. One of the arachnacosa’s eight legs got stuck in the mound and Rainier slashed it around its knee. Due to the sharpness of the razor, it nearly cut clean through the leg, resulting in the arachnacosa howling in pain.

Rainier took advantage of its stunned state and slashed another leg. The monster persevered and resumed its battle state though with slower movement. Rainier only fought the monster on this terrain and was thankful it was too stupid to move away and use more of its acid spit.

Eventually after an annoyingly long drawn out battle, Rainier severed the creature’s fifth leg, resulting in the arachnacosa having too much weight on only three of its legs. Its strength was drained due to the loss of blood and it was just far too weak to continue standing.

Rainier stared down the monster as it looked back with fearful eyes on the human who towered before him. “Oshna…” The spider humanoid muttered weakly, as if it was pleading for its life.

Rainier showed no mercy and promptly slit the creature’s throat. Now with the blood of two more lives seeping into Razor of Envy, Rainier felt himself grow a little sick. He felt pure negativity emanating from the dagger, drawing his eyes in.

It made him feel sick. Rainier threw up on the ground and panted for air. He noticed that the saliva intermixed with his vomit had a bright green coloring to it and seemed to sizzle into the ground.

Rainier scrunched his eyes together and gathered more saliva in his mouth which he promptly spit out. Again, his saliva had a lime green tint to it and reacted with the ground as if it was acid.

‘Did I gain some sort of acid spit ability due to the razor absorbing the arachnacosa’s power?’ It seemed Razor of Envy not only absorbed strength from those that he killed, but unique abilities as well. Even so, Rainier noticed that the impact of his brand new acid spit was quite weak. Perhaps he needed to slay more arachnacosa in order to fully master his new internal power.

Rainier smiled and climbed up on top of the largest boulder in the immediate area. He didn’t notice before, but he found he was right next to the cliff on the edge of the Roseir Plateau.

Before, Rainier was scared out of his wits, wanting nothing more than to go home and live a tough albeit safe life.

Drunk on his new found aptitude and ability, Rainier looked down on everything he could see.

“Now I want to take control. I’m going to get powerful and have the adventures I wanted. I’m going to make everything respect and revere me.” With those audacious statements said, Rainier trekked back to Outpost Roseir and prepared himself.

---

It was the eleventh day of the teleportation.

Whitney sighed as she closed the curtains of her fanciful room. She looked about her personal room where she was afforded with every luxury imaginable. She didn’t mind the room itself, it was like she was staying in an ultra-high class hotel. However just because her bedroom had been upgraded into this didn’t mean she couldn’t get homesick.

Whitney desperately wanted to go home, but she had no way of getting there. She couldn’t order a taxi or take the bus like usual. Nor could she get an airplane ticket or board a train.

Whitney was far from home. In fact she was currently living in another world which was called Ademptis by its residents.

The city Whitney was staying in was one of the last three cities of the decaying Rhime tribes. The Rhime were a highly advanced race of beings that resembled elves from movies Whitney had seen, though there were clear noticeable difference such aqua blue skin, pointed ears that curved around back to their cheeks, and sharp teeth that belonged on carnivorous animals. There were others, but these were the few unique traits Whitney had found most odd and frightening.

She didn’t hate the Rhime; in fact she was quite thankful for their efforts in taking care of her. They had only one expectation, to make her a saintly heroine of their race.

Whitney was told that she was summoned through a sacrificial ritual that slew three of their most powerful sages. The purpose of this ritual was to summon a human from another world which would be the most likely to raise their race from eventual extinction into a prime empire.

Ademptis was a savage world, Whitney had learned.

The magic and monsters that frolicked around in its vast wildernesses proved to be too powerful and waged a war of attrition against various sentient species until extinction came. The human empire, which was heralded as the most immense of all kingdoms, also fell prey to the creeping influence of Ademptis. Humans were also marveled for having the most potential out of every sentient species. Though they perished as a race, due to an unknown calamity, it was well known that humans were quite adept in adaptation.

Whitney couldn’t understand the meaning behind their words, but she realized that she was going to be forced to fight for the Rhime against powerful foes. And how would that be possible if she didn’t know how to use the magic of Ademptis or how to fight with a simple sword?

Whitney truly felt despair.

“Eventually they’re going to learn that I know nothing about fighting and throw me to the wolves… I won’t last two seconds in this supposedly dangerous wilderness.” Whitney didn’t want to die or be exiled. The days she wept and ran away, frightened about her future prospects were already over. She had to go through that ordeal even before being taken to the world of Ademptis. In the five stages of grief, Whitney was currently at the depression stage.

“Maybe I should try learning some magic? The Rhime would be more than glad to show me the ropes.” Whitney thought of anything which could give her advantage in her situation.

She could only think of her unusual aptitude towards animals. Nearly every cat, dog, squirrel, raccoon, horse, and animal she came across back home liked her quite a bit. When she was about to be mugged once, a stray dog which she had just given some food instantly came to her rescue and fought off her attacker.

It seemed the affection she received from animals transferred over here. She had befriended some sort of bird she never saw before just the other day. She remembered its beautiful plumage which consisted of a mixture of black, red, and green feathers. Its head feathers extended like a long tail from its head and she found it quite interesting how both the tail and head plumage were connected to each other, forming a wide ring of feathers at least half a meter long. It had a beak, which strangely diverted into two beaks as if it had been cut through the center. The bird also had one more unique feature, a single black orb which was set perfectly center in its feather ring. The ball wasn’t connected to the bird in any way, but it kept the ring perfectly rigid as it lay in the center, hovering in midair.

Well, the strange bird wasn’t here at the moment, much to Whitney’s disappointment. Still, it wasn’t like she could have the bird with her at all times, it had its own needs to take care of.

Whitney sluggishly began removing her golden robes. She was given fresh clothing just after settling in Friye, one of the last three major cities the Rhime had control over. It was nearing nighttime and Whitney just wanted to go to bed after a day of forced smiles and compassion, smug leaders, and thoughts of a bleak future.

Whitney stripped down to her undergarments, slightly annoyed by how sexy the ones she was given by the female Rhime. She didn’t hate them, she simply wished she had a larger array of more normal clothing. Whitney also didn’t feel like there was going to be anyone in this strange world she would be remotely interested in, so it wasn’t like she was going to bare it all and show off her looks.

“In all, it’s a really beautiful city… Especially the night sky.” The sky had a large moon with rings orbiting the world she stood on. And if you looked closely, the moon seemed to have several large asteroids orbiting it along with the rings.

As Whitney leaned on the windowsill high in the sky (her room was located in a tower), she sighed and lost all interest in her surroundings.

Her reverie was soon broken by a hand wrapped in black leather grabbing her wrist from below the window. “Yeek!” Whitney instantly jolted in surprise and fell backwards as she wrenched her wrist away.

An obviously male figure completely garbed in black leather deftly pulled itself over the window’s ledge and stood tall over Whitney’s frail body. The strange man even had a crying theatre mask covering his face. He certainly didn’t look anything like a human or a one of the Rhime, in fact, Whitney had never seen such an oddly shaped person before. The line of bony spikes jutting out from its spinal cord said it all.

Then the intruder spoke in a slight hushed voice. “By the order of our hero, Musala Kasamir, I shall kill you.” The figure pulled his arm back, and a piece of his plated leather gauntlets slid back, revealing a small nub above his wrist. The nub extended forward into a wicked looking spike made of white bone and covered in blood and chunks of flesh.

Whitney, not wanting to die at all, turned over and scrambled for the door to her room. She felt a piercing, burning pain appear in her ankle. She looked down and saw a small piece of metal shrapnel digging in her flesh. She whimpered in pain, clutching at her ankle as if to keep the blood inside her.

Whitney’s assassin slowly stalked over to her with his arm still angled behind him. In a flash moment, he shot it forward with the speed of a dart. It was pure chance that he missed Whitney’s head.

Whitney, determined to get over her pain, tried to stand back up and accidentally put too much weight, which resulted in her collapsing flat on the ground, not even noticing that she somehow dodged the spearing of her head.

Once she noticed the bone spear just centimeters from her cheek, she shivered in fear and bit her lower lip as she made a desperate attempt. Whitney pushed with all her weak might off the ground, head-butting the man behind her in his groin.

As he received an attack on vulnerable part of his body, the assassin grunted in pain and recoiled back a few steps before mustering zeal to ignore the pain.

It was truly hopeless, Whitney didn’t know how to fight nor did she even have a way to defend herself. She could only meekly cry for help. “HELP ME! PLEEEEASE!” Whitney screamed very hoarsely, her voice getting caught on a mass of vomit and saliva in her throat.

The assassin showed no interest in mercy and stepped forward, pulling back his arm once again. He only uttered, “My hero commands it.”

‘Is this how I’m going to die?! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!’ Cried Whitney uselessly in her mind. She thrust her palms as if she could block the bone spear with his hand, though it was a feeble attempt at defense.

Perhaps her prayers were answered or perhaps Whitney was lucky. Either way, something bending the laws of reality occurred before her very eyes.

A large ball of compressed air formed in front of her palms and showed a distorted picture as if you were looking through a hazy pane of glass.

Surprised, the assassin jumped back and readied a second bone spear from his other wrist wary for any attack.

The ball of air shifted colors to a smoky black. Then a calm cooing sounded off from the ball, a sound familiar to Whitney. The bird with a strange ring of plumage connecting its tail and head ripped its way through the smoky ball, dissipating it like it was a simple bubble.

The frowning mask almost seemed to smile as the assassin chuckled behind it, bemused that he almost like he was in danger for a second. He raised both his wrists and pulled them back, ready to strike down by the bird and his target.

However, before he could strike… His head disappeared and his body slumped down.

Whitney stared in horror. Her assassin was suddenly beheaded by the bird before her. The bird had literally enlarged in size almost instantaneously so that its double tipped beak bit off the assassin’s head.

After the initial distress, Whitney felt calmer than she should have been. She knew that the bird would not hurt her and would most likely protect her with its life. Whitney stood and limped over to the bird so that she could hug it as if she was hugging a dog or cat that had been with her all its life.

Suddenly her door burst open and three Rhime rushed in, each wielding shield and mace. They saw the bird and Whitney in an embrace and stared wide eyed. However, after the preliminary surprise, they instantly dropped to their knees and prostrated before the two of them.

“Eh, um, what are you doing?” Overwhelmed by their sudden show of reverence, Whitney asked in a confused manner.

Hesitantly, the Rhime in the middle answered. “You are truly the heroine of our race… You summoned the great heavenly Garuda.”