New World

"Because it's a good chance to regain my original power. Plus, I'd argue it's safer than this hell hole of a world…."

"Nah, you're not going. The mirror isn't all-powerful. It can get stolen, shattered, broken, or sacrificed by a foreign being. The amount of magic power this thing holds is the equivalent of an atomic magi bomb. You can flatten an entire city with the power held in that thing… or somebody else can if it's placed in the wrong hands,"

"Of course, I'm gonna take care of it," I snarled back, and as his glare was directed towards me, I stared back, calmly with a bit of boldness to it.

"Tsk… then you're taking this tag along with you. I'm not feeding your cat for you… take her with you," Silas responded before picking up Faye by the back of her shirt and placing her in front of me.

She meekly smiled, knowing I would disapprove, especially with the glare now almost piercing through her.

…

"Okay, let's get some things straight. You will not bother, bug, or annoy me during this entire trip. If you ever put yourself in danger, I won't be there to help you, but of course, that applies to vice versa. No need to help me if I'm in danger."

"But what if I want to help you?" Faye fluttered her eyes.

I stood there for a few seconds, debating whether I should kill her as soon as I stepped into the next realm… but just left it be.

She has more use to me alive than dead, so there was no need to act irrationally.

"Do what you want…." I sighed, gripping both straps of my backpack and then turning my head around to see Albus slowly waving me goodbye.

I waved back to him before stepping through the massive portal, a strange dropping sensation flooding down from my toes and all the way up to my head.

From the moment my toe touched the swirling and groaning portal, it felt as if I had been dropped from space, only gaining more and more speed in the pitch-blackness known as my vision.

I could not see a single thing, no matter how hard I squinted, so in the end, I just gave up and let nature take the wheel.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Just as I was about to close my eyes, I saw a white figure begin plummeting down from a piece of the void just above me.

She got closer and closer and closer until she slammed into my stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of me as I gripped the collar of her button-up white shirt.

"You… asshole…" I grit my teeth, trying my best to regain my breath as a crack of light erupts from the endless void below me.

Like a hammer smashed into a thick piece of glass, the air below us had shattered into a spider web formation, each crack slowly beginning to break the surrounding darkness away.

Spindles of light wiggled their way through the darkness, eventually reaching me and the idiot I was currently gripping onto.

Their bright and fibrous bodies gripped onto me, wrapping my pale skin like the cocoon of a butterfly, attempting to trap me but also help me at the same time.

"Don't panic, and don't move," I muttered.

"S-Sure," Faye meekly replied, digging her face into my collar as she attempted to block her vision from everything that was occurring around us.

Soon, we had both been wrapped in these angelic fibers, and before we knew it, we heard the sound of wind whooshing past us, and a familiar warmth shone brightly on our tender skin.

"Hey… look up."

Faye slowly turned her head to the side, seeing the massive jungle landscape below us, thriving with greenery and perched monsters resting atop the endless green sea of humid canopy.

In the sky, she noticed the two smaller orange suns, slightly beating their warm and almost relaxing rays against us.

In the distance, way past the jungle below, was a wall of mountains towering up into space, nearly piercing the moons that hung in the brightness of the sun's glow.

This place defied all logic… and that is what made it so dangerous.

"Hey! Buff us so we don't die falling down from the sky!"

And yes, we were both plummeting from the clouds, seemingly painted effortlessly into the long and light blue sky, replicating a bright but cool summer.

"Y-Yes!" Faye stuttered, muttering a few useless words before finally saying the necessary skills. "[Empower], [Iron Skin], [Extreme Levitation]."

Once she had finished, I was wrapped in a light red aura with my skin turned completely gray, a steel sheen emanating from each and every square inch of skin on my body.

Plus, [Extreme Levitation] made us fall much, much, much slower, but even with it, we would die if we didn't have any buffs.

And so, just like that, we tumbled through the hundreds of branches, snapping some and getting the air knocked out of us once again on some of the tougher ones.

BAM

"Huff… huff… huff… well… I seem fine…." I lightly groaned, knowing a few bruises were in store from me, but apart from that, everything was fine.

But as soon as we had reached the bottom, Faye healed the both of us, and we stared upward, this time from below the endless canopy.

CREEEK CREEEK CREEEK CREEEEK

The loud chirping of some kind of insect echoed through the jungle, barreling between logs and branches, and intertwining itself with the very essence of this place: its darkness.

From above, it was beautifully bright and sunny, but from below, it was almost the complete opposite due to the insanely thick canopy above.

Only a few rays of sunshine peer through the small cracks, but even then, they are still diminished by the vines dangling from the massive logs above.

"Should we make a fire?" Faye asked, gripping the straps of her backpack tightly.

"No. You'll draw them towards us… and for now, we must run from this spot. They'll be coming soon."