Trapped in Another World With No Magicc

Kaboom!

A distant explosion puts everyone on edge immediately, and Daniel grips his rifle tightly. It came from the direction of Hekate, and he starts to move, but a crystal cradled in the crook of a wooden staff cuts in front of him. He orders, “Move.”

“If you value her Greatness, you will wait.”

“Neith,...” starts Daniel loudly, but Senn immediately interrupts to reiterate, “If you value Hekate, you will wait!”

Daniel draws his revolver, since his staff is too long to aim at someone so close to him. Senn doesn’t flinch, even looking down the barrel of his sidearm. She probably can withstand the revolver with a magic barrier, which she likely already has surrounding her. He can’t carry anti-magic bullets, or he’ll negate everyone’s magic in his immediate vicinity.

That said, the message is clear. Everyone is on guard now, and Senn needs to explain quickly.

“I received more than just a location from the tree, Daniel. You’ve trusted me well enough so far, and I have no desire to provoke you or your allies. Not least of which is the little feldrok in question.”

“I’m not playing mind games, Senn. Neith, go and…”

“She’s insecure!” shouts Senn, once more doing everything she can to stop anyone from going to Hekate’s rescue. “I saw two futures at the same time I was looking into the past. One where you go to her rescue, and one where you don’t. You can’t keep coming to her rescue every time she stumbles.” Senn finally relaxes her staff, adding sincerely, “Hekate is immature and reckless, but she’s not helpless. The creature lying ahead is no match for her. But, it will challenge her. Let her be challenged and grow for a change, or you run the risk of her being helpless when you are unable to help her.”

Daniel feels a crushing guilt at these words. He has the youth and endurance of his younger body with the knowledge and experience of a decade longer of working and living. And, because of that, he has chosen to take the approach that, so long as he can keep going, he will make use of every hour he can stay awake out of Zenkon’s 29 hour days. He is constantly working, though there is time for leisure with his friends and family that he ensures to take when he can.

That said, he has been told directly and knows that he carries a lot of the burden of the Fievegal’s inner workings, while administrative tasks are largely handled by the convenience the Citadel provides.

He needs to be learning to properly lead and delegate, and he needs to be helping his companions fill important roles as well, not least of which is the sovereign leader of the Fievegal, who is not supposed to be himself.

Hekate relies on him for almost everything, but her small excursion to Shialvalgarro’s Hoard with Geirahoel was an attempt to face her demons on her own. Geirahoel went along under excuse, but she was much more effective at letting Hekate stand on her own.

And, the teenage empress specifically requested to do this scouting mission solo. Daniel doesn’t like the idea of leaving her to it, but he needs to trust her. She has telepathy, and Neith would move if Hekate asked for help. The only reason the grey knight has remained, along with the others, is because she hasn’t asked for help yet. The explosion is proof that Hekate is doing what she needs to in order to defend herself and carry out her mission.

There is other noise happening, from foliage breaking and other deep sounds, confirming that the fight is still ongoing.

Senn adds, “Hekate needs confidence. There is a reason that birds push their offspring out of the nest when it’s time, yes?”

Daniel looks away from the elf. She’s absolutely right, and he’s still trying to suppress his instinctive desire to sacrifice himself for someone who is more powerful and likely to survive than he is. He is terrified of the possibility, though.

Once more, he is reminded of what he puts his family through when he acts without any input from anyone else.

Hekate had his permission, and she does have his trust. The mechanic has seen some of the miraculous feats the deceptively small girl has carried out and the forces she can withstand.

Daniel finally nods. He decides on a compromise, looking at Senn more calmly this time. “Sir Neith, you have permission to advance on the Empress’s word.”

“As you wish, my Liege.”

Senn smiles and nods. “This is a step she needs to take, Daniel. Though, she’ll hide it from you.”

The human cocks his head, but the moment is disrupted when Helbeit calls out, “Incoming forward!” He and Resken immediately take a knee with their dragonslayers aimed forward, while the Honeydip family, Veiranoei, and Treia all aim their rifles. “Hold fire!” shouts Treia, adding over her shoulder, “It’s Hekate!”

Emerging from the thickest part of the forest ahead, the small teen jogs towards the group. Daniel feels relief for a brief moment before his brain processes what he’s seeing, and everyone is stunned.

A whooshing hum grows near Daniel before a flash of magic energy bolts towards Hekate, and he is stunned further.

That said, the confusion is short-lived, thankfully, when Doephluev appears directly in front of Hekate from the magic bolt, catching the teen in a hug as the startled ravenette seems to think she was under attack.

“Look away, you lechers!” shouts the archoneldwyn, and all of the men quickly avert their eyes as a magic aura surrounds the two young women.

She was hiding most of her front with her matted-down and soaking wet tail, as well as hugging her water-logged gear over her chest.

“Neith! Cape!” calls out Doephluev. Without hesitation, the grey dragon sheds his cape and rolls it into a log-shape, tossing it to the former-assassin. The pseudo-elf catches the garment and unfurls it to wrap it around Hekate’s shoulders, while the feldrok empress bashfully remains silent.

Gwenesphia and Treia also approach the two to check on Hekate, and the former lieutenant asks gently, “Hekate, are you alright? What happened?”

“I found the thingie Neith sensed. It’s some kind of monster with lots of arms that have eyeballs. It was the only thing I saw, but it lives under the ground but in water that’s like a net.”

“What?” asks the gatonine, glancing at her brunette companion. Treia tries to keep a neutral face, but is also confused.

“Let’s get her dried off and dressed first,” urges Doephluev. “Darling? Can we take a brief break for her Greatness?”

The mechanic asks, “Are we under attack, Hekate?”

“No. I don’t think it can or wants to leave its tree lake,” replies the teen. She sneezes cutely, flinging water from her hair and fox-like ears.

“This sounds like an interesting explanation,” jokes Daniel.

“I’m serious! There were trees and a lake but the ground isn’t real! And it has eyeballs on its hands!” When Hekate flings her right hand out from under the cape to show her palm, Doephluev reacts instantly to parry her hand back down and keep the cape closed around her.

“Hey! Think about your surroundings, you dummy!”

Hekate’s ears flatten down as she shrinks sheepishly. “R-Right. Sorry.”

The archoneldwyn temporary-Empress uses the cape to lead Hekate towards the rear of the group. “Sir Neith, please guard Wenlianna for the moment while I help her Greatness fix her equipment.”

“A-Actually, I’ll join you,” replies Wenlianna. “That way, Sir Neith can lead the others forward, if that’s more efficient.”

Daniel looks at Senn briefly, who smiles. “Hekate, did the monster have ten arms, like the Strylak?”

The human from Earth notices that his demon-kin companions, specifically, flinch at the mention of the legendary beast.

Hekate nods. “Y-Yes! But, it wasn’t a Strylak. Its head was different. Like a snake, but without scales.”

“Sounds like a pol’vapporr,” states Kera’tai thoughtfully.

“Poll… vah poor?” asks Gwenesphia.

Kera’tai nods. “Yes. At least, that’s the Chi’rinnis name for them. They’re many-armed critters that live in swamps, mostly. They eat bugs, fish, and rodents, mostly.” She touches her finger to her chin, “They’re extremely good when grilled…”

“It was the size of a dragon!” whines Hekate as she’s being guided away by Doephluev.

This surprises Kera’tai, and she says seriously, “The largest I’ve ever heard them getting is no bigger than a small child.”

Senn explains, “As we’ve seen in recent weeks, monsters aren’t restrained in size.” She adds with a more serious tone, “However, the primary threat a pol’vapporr poses is ambush and a moderate resistance to magic attacks, since its eyes can ‘pull’ spells to the sacrificial hands our great empress spoke of.”

“It can pull spells?” asks Daniel, surprised.

“Indeed,” replies the elf. She requests, “Lady Vaergraes, if you would. A simple water spell will do.”

Vaergraes smiles and raises her hands, chanting without objection to create a small, baseball-sized orb of water over her hand. With a chant of her own, Senn sways her staff, and she is able to ‘yank’ the magic water orb from Vaergraes with a stream of water following it until the Uhl’tall archpriestess stops the spell.

With the aquatic sphere now floating above her staff, Senn explains, “While the spell is being cast, a skilled master of these arts could drain the mana of their target. The spell and caster both need to be in view to drain mana, but only the spell needs to be in view to ‘steal’ the spell itself.

She looks at Daniel, lowering her staff to drop the water to the ground. “Fortunately, we have a warrior who fights completely without any magic necessary.”

Daniel ponders her words for a moment. He doesn’t have any large explosives like depth charges, if the creature is residing below the water. Likewise, he has Neith, who will be willing to enter the monster’s domain and fight it directly.

“Can we go around?” asks Daniel.

“Given that the route was taking us directly through the area ahead,...” starts Neith.

“And the fact that there’s a monster,” jokes Aoloan, though she’s completely correct.

Neith nods in agreement with the succubus and finishes, “We can try, but it’s highly likely that our goal lies within.”

“Figures,” replies Daniel.

“I have an idea,” suggests Treia, raising her hand.

Everyone looks to her, and she crosses her arms as she shifts her weight on her legs. Her tail flicks side to side a little, and she tries to ignore the mass attention on her now. “What about the lightning gun?”

“The one my Liege used against me?” asks Neith.

The gatonine former-sergeant shakes her head. “No. Didn’t you make a magic crystal rifle like the fire blaster or Hekate’s ice blaster, but with lightning?”

Daniel replies, “I didn’t. It’s too dangerous because the discharge would conduct through even the most…”

The mechanic trails off. He has had to do a lot of different things to survive in this world, not least of which is find ways to mimic the weapons and technology of Earth to either defend himself or earn a livelihood and support that of his comrades. One of the first tools of defense he developed was the humble black powder bomb, which became the core of his defense of Fort Peony, including the rifle shells he made.

But, scaling that up with better materials from what would normally be a fictional fantasy world to an earthling, an atom bomb is a nuclear reaction started with a more basic explosion.

In practice, the elemental blasters that do work, including the rail gun, use the same basic idea as the atom bomb; slam mana crystals and elemental crystals together to discharge their energy rapidly.

Daniel has dynamite, metal canisters, and elemental crystals in his void bag. He needs to sit down and rebuild more of the elemental blasters, as well as improve and remake his rail gun. 

In an ideal world, all of the repair parts in the world are at a mechanic’s fingertips, and he can repair the machines he is charged with repairing by simply swapping out that broken part.

However, while not true of nuclear equipment, there are times that improvisation was the key from the military to the manufacturing facilities that Daniel worked at over his lifetime. Parts that are ‘good enough’, forming repairs out of what is available, and ultimately finding solutions with whatever they can is the heart and soul of being a machinery mechanic. When it needs to work right away, that was the defining purpose of an in-house repairman, which dominated most of Daniel’s career. And, the goal was to make it work until it could be properly rebuilt with the right parts.

Many times, that last step may get neglected or forgotten in lieu of keeping up run time, but that’s beside the point.

More importantly, he has the simple design in his head already, but he doesn’t have lightning crystals handy. Fortunately, he is willing to bet that Wenlianna has a mana crystal charging device, or knows how to shift elements.

“I don’t have anything ready at the moment, but I can make something unless there are objections.”

Kuboen, having kept to his family’s group for the most part, finally growls, “What’s the point of giving us these if we aren’t going to use them?” He holds up his assault rifle he was loaned to emphasize his point.

“My dear, sweet brother-in-law…” teases Daniel. This causes the male gatonine to fume as all of his present family members; Goelselmo, Gwenesphia, Peiburi, and Lyrtef all snicker at him.

The human’s response continues more sincerely, “One of the biggest enemies to all high-power rifles is actually water, believe it or not. We’re going to make a quick and dirty depth charge… though a very spicy one.” Daniel grins deviously as he sets to work extracting the pieces he’ll need on the ground from his.

Kuboen defensively complains as he storms towards Daniel, “I-I am NOT your brother-in-law yet, human! A-And don’t be cocky about what happened!”

Daniel glances at him with genuine confusion, and the gatonine flinches, realizing something that apparently only he knows. He grips Daniel’s collar briefly, causing Neith, Helbeit, and Resken to go on guard as Gwenesphia and Goelselmo scold him, “Kuboen!”

“D-Don’t tell anyone about it!” snaps the gatonine cryptically, wholly confusing the human from another world. Kuboen stomps off back to his position at one of the flanks, near Lyrtef, while Goelselmo calls out, “Ku-!... Your Grace, please forgive him…”

Daniel chuckles. “No worries. I’m not sure what he’s talking about.”

When everyone looks at the gatonine for clarification, he sucks his teeth and storms off to the perimeter to avoid answering. In the meantime, Daniel focuses on assembling parts, and Vaergraes crouches across from him. Treia joins her in observing, and she picks up one of the sticks of dynamite Daniel has withdrawn.

“Do you intend to drive the creature out of the water?” asks the Uhl’tall archpriestess.

“Not exactly,” replies Daniel.

“Magic crystals…” murmurs Treia thoughtfully as she looks at the small salt crystals. Daniel isn’t above using diamonds for something disposable, since he can always make more. But, this time, he has chosen the much more fragile salt-based crystals, even for a presumably aquatic application.

The gatonine woman asks, “Won’t these melt in the water?”

Daniel smirks and winks. “Indeed they will.”

She frowns at him, and Vaergraes tries to ponder what he could possibly make with the parts he has retrieved.

“Shh!” hisses Goelselmo as the senior-most gatonine present perks up. His feline ears twist and angle, listening intently as everyone looks at him.

The Baron calls out, “Something’s coming.”

“Contact!” shouts Helbeit in reply.

“Everyone, lower posture and cover all directions!” shouts Neith.

Daniel quickly shifts his grip to his rifle, drawing it from its slinged position across his back. Vaergraes pivots away from him, and Treia shoulders her rifle.

“Veiranoei, move in closer to us,” orders Daniel. “Kera’tai…”

“Wenlianna?” asks the Chi’rinnis woman, and Daniel nods. He specifically means all of them, but Kera’tai is smart enough to realize that. Without hesitation, she shoulders her own rifle and jogs off in the direction the group went to help Hekate get dressed. Daniel is certainly curious why the feldrok girl made the choices she did, but he’ll need to ask her later.

Veiranoie jogs in close to Daniel, but she complains lightly, “Daniel, I’m a knight. Just because our fight…”

“I trust your ability,” replies Daniel. “If we need to run, I need your senses and local knowledge.”

She flinches, blushing a little at his sincere words. She bobs her head, and Treia pats her shoulder. “Don’t think he’ll foolishly protect us because we’re empresses in name.”

“For fu-...” Daniel halts himself as he closes his eyes, resisting the urge to let out a long sigh. Treia snickers, and he redirects, “Loud and clear, Kitten.” This halts her snickering, and she blushes brightly. The mechanic then finishes, “We’ll make sure there’s good news for your family before we visit them. Now, focus…”

Daniel isn’t a true soldier or warrior. He has managed to survive in this fantasy world, and he played a lot of video games back on Earth. Even if his instincts aren’t the most honed, he is pretty good at spotting motion.

And, a shift in the colors of the leaves and branches looming above the entrance to the area Hekate was scouting catches his eye.

“Watch the trees!” calls out Daniel, and the others immediately aim their respective weapons up. “I see them!” calls out Resken, the shenwulf knight. “Green fur, biped! Dextrous hands and tails!”

“I see them!” confirms Lyrtef. “Multiple enemies!”

“Gwen, Flash!” orders Neith.

“Shield your eyes! Flash out!” shouts the gatonine in turn. She throws a flashbang grenade, and the sensitive gatonine and shenwulf fighters cover their ears as they look away. The grenade explodes with a loud thump and a flash of light. The mechanic is already aiming his rifle, knowing that the small explosive will likely only provoke whatever is hunting them, and sure enough, there are beasts wailing and howling in the trees, far more numerous than he realized at first. It feels like the sound surrounds them, and he shouts as loudly as he can, “Weapons free! Weapons free! Hold your ground!”

Neith is the first to truly act. He suddenly grows in size, though his form remains his human-knight body, rather than his true dragon shape. He bellows more loudly than the beasts in the trees, and he steps towards the trees.

The beasts howl and shriek in a noisy cacophony that grates on Daniel’s nerves. He doesn’t want it to be true, but the sound reminds him of one of his least favorite animals on Earth; monkeys.

Most animals have simple reasons for expressing aggression; hunger, territorial guarding, and defending offspring being among the most prominent of those.

Monkeys are smart enough to just be assholes.

And, because they’re extremely social animals, they are noisy.

The human mechanic tries to shout out, “Dragonslayers! Fall back and switch to sidearms! Everyone else! Fire in bursts like I showed you!” He hopes they can hear, but given the chaotic discord going on from the monsters, he’s not optimistic.

Rocks and sticks launch out of the trees in the initial attack from the beasts, aimed at the giant humanoid form of Neith. Several of the creatures even launch themselves out of the tree branches to attack the giant, shrieking as they ‘ambush’ the grey dragon.

Unfortunately for them, they don’t have anything to land on, and there are no branches to rescue themselves.

The creatures plummet to the ground after passing through the illusion Neith created to draw them out, and it worked like a charm.

While the creatures are behaving like the primates of Earth in various ways, they have one of the least Earth-looking appearances of the creatures he has seen yet, beaten only by Arachne.

Rather than the fairly standard mouth on the head, the head doesn’t have a mouth at all. The only openings are a pair of large nostrils on the underside of the head, which is transparent forward-protruding dome occupying most of the profile, inside of which are a pair of vertically-positioned binocular eyes. Because of the transparent head and creepy tube-shaped eyes. The head reminds Daniel of a barreleye fish, but ugly.

As Resken mentioned, their fur is a grimy and uneven shade of green, reminding Daniel of a sloth, though these creatures are far more active and energetic than the epitome of slow animals on Earth.

The legs are short like a gorilla’s, while it possesses a long, prehensile tail. Perhaps its strangest feature, however, is the fact that the creature’s mouth is located in the middle of its abdomen, like a kangaroo’s pouch full of teeth.

And, these ones confirm that they’re almost certainly transfigured into their monster aberrations when those that are falling seem to summon plants as they wail. It’s their last ditch effort, and the leaves and stems of plants seem to extend out of their fur at a rapid pace.

Daniel watches his line of fire, making a conscious note of where the monsters are going to land and not to involve his allies in crossfire. Resken has fallen back, somehow seeming to hear Daniel, but his counterpart is moving sideways away from Neith, trying to aim at the falling monsters where they’ll land with the massive and heavy rifle. Peiburi notices the crossfire, and she panics, tackling Lyrtef to the ground as her elder brother tries to cover the thicker trees.

The first three monsters hit the ground, flopping painfully. Not wanting to take chances, Daniel fires a short burst of rifle fire into each of them, startling Veiranoei and Gwenesphia, who are with him. He calls out over the noise when they look at him, “Make sure they stay down!”

Both gatonine women nod, and when several more flop painfully on the ground after plummeting through the illusion they confidently tried to attack, they help Daniel finish them off. Even if they were defending their territory, finishing them off to end any suffering is the right answer.

Motion fills the forest ahead of them, and Daniel’s skin crawls. Something feels wrong with all of the noise. Or rather, with how mobile the creatures are, and that all of the noise is only coming from one direction.

The mechanic looks quickly over his shoulder to find motion darting through the branches and down the trunks. Green, grey, and brown creatures are flanking them from behind. “Contact rear!” Knowing that there’s too much noise for his words, Daniel pivots and opens fire, focusing on the higher-elevation belly-mouth monkey monsters to avoid the risk of endangering Hekate’s group.

Suddenly, a weight flops against Daniel’s shoulder, and his heart nearly stops. Fortunately, it’s Treia, and she’s forcibly grabbing his attention to show him the dynamite. She shouts over the uproar, “I’m using it!”

“Do it!” replies Daniel loudly with a nod. She quickly lights the fuse in the middle, throwing the dangerous stick of explosive towards the monsters swarming down the trunks of several of the trees behind the main group.

Flashbangs have a very specific job in less-than-lethal close quarters combat; to disorient and stun enemies in a room without endangering any non-enemies inside. It has a fraction of the mass of explosive material in it as the classic destructive stick Treia just deployed. It will produce a sound more than 30 decibels louder than the flash grenade, meaning it is 30 times more intense. The gatonines and Resken will suffer the most, but hopefully, so will the monsters attacking them.

Treia yells, “Blast blast blast! Ears!” If anyone can hear her, they might be able to protect themselves from the sound.

Daniel braces himself. He, Treia, Veiranoei, and Vaergraes are the closest to the explosive, with Gwenesphia not much further away. The bursts of assault rifle fire and pistols from Resken and Helbeit are filling the underside of the trees with the voices of demons that emerged from the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution of Earth.

And, all of them are drowned out by a titan of the latter.

BOOOM!

The blast is potent, powerful, and rattles Daniel to his bones. Treia instinctively clutches Daniel tightly as she flinches from pain, trying to cover her left ear with her left hand as she falls against Daniel. Even with his helmet, Daniel’s ears are ringing, so he can only imagine the others.

Thankfully, the dynamite seems to have had at least some useful effect. A significant number of the monsters fall or tumble back. It buys Daniel a moment to look around as Treia clings to him, trying to overcome the pain in her ears.

Some of the strange creatures have been knocked out of the trees in the forward and side areas, while the gatonines are still fighting. Goelselmo seems the most affected, but he is still able to keep his rifle up and firing.

Resken, having fired the dragonslayer in training, seems to be alright, and Neith is using magic to pick off any of the creatures that get close. Aoloan seems to be  using hypnosis magic to puppeteer an individual of the monsters, making it attack its own, which provokes swift retaliation. For each of her puppets that falls, she switches to the next, keeping her pistol handy for anything that gets too close.

And Senn, the mysterious and powerful elf is wholly immersed and focused on chanting as glowing circles appear and turn slowly around her.

During all of this, Neith suddenly tenses like his skin suddenly started crawling, and the grey dragon spins. Neith is wearing armor again, but his eye-line is easy enough to follow.

Or rather, the nearly-white violet glow that is hard to miss in the shade of the titanic behemoth maples.

Neith acts swiftly, and the illusion dissipates as leaps towards the youthful orange dragon in human form. He is careful of her nearly full-term pregnancy, but he drags her to the ground as he interrupts her attempt to breath enhanced fire.

Daniel bolts to his feet. Between her decision to appear at the ongoing skirmish and being not only touched, but forcefully interrupted by Neith of all people, there’s a very real chance there will be far more collateral than acceptable.

The human mechanic asks Treia, “Can you hear me!?”

She nods, still groaning and breathing heavily. “Yeah! A little!”

“Stay here! I need to go to Neith and Geira!”

She nods, though she’s surprised to hear the dragon’s name. That said, but the gatonine finally releases him, and he jogs to the pair of dragons as Neith works to talk down the much younger and more emotional Dragon Empress.

“Why are you wasting time like this!?” shouts Geirahoel while Daniel is getting close. “These things are nothing more than numerous!”

“The forest is a precious resource! Please, think about this, your Grace!” replies Neith, insistently preventing her from moving around him to attack. She finally grabs for his neck, which is one of the few vulnerable spots in his armor, but he was ready for it, snatching her wrists swiftly.

Daniel is worried about the monsters, which are still numerous and haven’t given up, but he needs to calm down Geirahoel before the situation gets much worse.

Just before the mechanic can intervene, however, Neith swiftly scoops the auburn haired woman into a firm hug. Daniel can hear because he’s close enough, and the grey dragon quickly urges, “Your Grace! Your Grace! Please!”

“Let go of me, Onii-chan! What do you think you’re doing!?”

“You’re in the way, Geirahoel!” shouts the knight.

She halts her movement, stunned in horror by his words.

“We were handling it! If we weren’t, I would proudly burn every inch of this land to ash myself! I’ve already messed up enough! Please, let me uphold my duty so you can relax.”

“How can I relax with you being unreliable!?” complains the younger of the two.

Daniel ponders interfering, but Neith is handling her better than the mechanic expected.

“I failed you when you needed me. I failed Daniel when he needed me. I’m the worst brother in the world. But, I’ll never stop trying, and I will die to defend you and the rest of our family.”

Daniel is behind Geirahoel, so she hasn’t noticed him yet, and he can’t see her face either. But, she isn’t struggling against Neith nearly as much. She leans close and whispers to the grey dragon, and Neith nods. He whispers, “I promise, your Grace.”

She backs away from him, and she finally looks over her shoulder, noticing Daniel, who is effectively guarding them now, though thankfully, the monsters are being held at bay. They’ve stopped pressing the attack as aggressively and are trying to circle and regroup, searching for vulnerable points.

The young orange dragon walks directly to Daniel, crossing her arms. “Must you play these games, Mukori? Why not incinerate them?”

“You know why,” replies Daniel. He gently hugs her with his left arm, and she remains quiet. “If you want to help, though, can you go find Hekate and make sure she, Wenlianna, Kera’tai, and Doephluev are alright?”

“They have returned to the Citadel,” replies the auburn haired young woman. “Hekate will need to explain, but they are safe. If you need me…”

Daniel puts his palm on her belly, which contains an egg nearly ready to be laid. She shouldn’t be active at all if it were up to him, but he knows too well that he’s the last person who can stop her. “After… I’ll welcome you as my right hand. Though, once they start hatching…”

She looks to the side, growling, “You always know what to say, Mukori. But, you also have responsibilities when that day comes. There are sixteen days left.”

“We’ll talk about it after we’re safe. Alright?”

She narrows her eyes at him, and he corrects himself. “When our mission is complete. We’re perfectly safe for now.”

“I’m watching your helmet, Mukori. Do not take it off.” She then pulls his helmet off immediately after saying that, kissing him briefly. Daniel laughs softly, and she shoves his helmet back on. “I do not care about a far off forest like you and that idiot Onii-chan.”

“I know. But, you should.” Daniel adds directly in her ear, “Think of it as a place for our children to adventure someday.”

She flexes her fingers idly as it plays out in her imagination. The mechanic finally pats her behind gently, urging her, “Let us finish up here.”

She nods a little reluctantly, and in a final act of defiance in retaliation for the light smack, she slaps his hip somewhat hard with her tail. “Don’t keep me waiting.” Her wings appear with magic, and she takes off, disappearing in a flash of teleportation.

Daniel notices that Neith has already resumed defending at the outer perimeter, and Veiranoei and Treia have remained close to Daniel, while Vaergraes is trying to maintain a defensive position near the rear, where the monsters are still attacking.

There are still a lot of the beasts, and Daniel doesn’t even know what they’re called yet.

Senn finally changes posture from her quiet chanting, which has taken a surprisingly long time. That said, there is a visible mystical energy swirling around her, connecting the various magical circles filled with glyphs and geometric-like shapes. The elven mage lives up to Daniel’s image of fantasy as her clothes and hair float and flutter with the power radiating around her.

Her voice carries effortlessly even over the noise, reminding Daniel of how Kaeralegier’s voice seems to reach him with a ghostly flanging effect, like her voice is duplicated and offset slightly from her true vocals to form a chorus of her own.

And, a strange sensation fills Daniel’s brain as she speaks, lifting her staff up a little.

Even though he doesn’t know the language she’s speaking, and he can recognize as much from the words she’s saying, he is able to understand her perfectly, as if he’s hearing the words in English. It’s not the same as how he understands the Eastern Imperial Trade language after learning it manually as an adult. It’s like he has always spoken the language, and her words are beautiful and voice comforting, in spite of the power being projected in her tone.

“[... I call upon the guardians of nature and the divine light of Order and Chaos to name this place… Hallowed Ground!]”

Hearing the self-translating spell gives Daniel a mild headache, but he’s thankful for the words. Though, something inside of him also seems to tighten and cause a mild and inexplicable feeling of dread.

The magic energy cyclones around Senn’s staff, spearing into the ground. Something like a faint golden shockwave spreads out, but it passes harmlessly by almost everyone to form a massive glowing haze over the ground and a sparkling, gossamer bubble dome. The monsters caught in the dome, which spans well beyond the group, shriek and flop backwards, desperately trying to flee the dome like vampires exposed to the sun.

The problem lies with the human mechanic from Earth.

His skin immediately starts to feel hot and itchy, and his insides twist and churn immediately. Daniel drops to a kneel as he clutches his gut, resisting the urge to yell. Geirahoel will likely be doing a quick 180 right back to their location, but until they know what’s going on, it’s not safe.

Daniel looks at Senn, who is studying the area quickly. The mechanic’s head is filled with chaotic noise worse than the monkey monsters that were attacking. 

Treia appears in his line of sight, checking on him with concern obvious. Daniel can’t hear her over the uproar of screechy, metallic noise in his brain, nor can he focus over the pain in virtually all of his body.

He chokes out an exhale, indicating that his breathing is erratic at best due to his whole body tightening. He can’t feel a thing.

Whatever is happening to him, it seems to be directly linked to the spell Senn just cast.

***