Chapter 4

Day 3: Shadows, Irritable Sand, and Nostalgic Groves

I have no idea where I am going, I realized.

This is evidently clear to me as I move through the forest, going roughly north-east from the cave. Getting food from apples was easy enough when there were still oaks around me, yet the other type of tree I see so commonly here, Birch trees, if I recall correctly, lacked them. And now I found myself in an entire section of forest filled with them.

While I wandered through this surprisingly dull section of woods, I decided to review some of the other facts I learned about my abilities. To start with, Deconstruction and Construction. Why in that order?

…I don't actually recall why. It just fits.

That aside, I've managed to figure most things out about it. Deconstruction lets me turn any material or structure, about one cubic meter in size, into a smaller version of the item with zero use of my mana, and the opposite can be done with the sized-down items in question. Though, this only applies randomly. I still haven't been able to do the same with smaller plants except tree saplings, for some reason.

The upper limit on how many items I can carry is seemingly capped at sixty-four, but it likely varies, since I can't seem to put tools and weapons in the same space, even if they are constructed the exact same way.

Despite how little sense that makes, I thought. The forest was still going, however eventually I found something new: a pond.

Now, I can't say I'm too well versed in how bodies of water form, but this pond… There's no source to it. And, from what I can tell, there's nothing in it. I can clearly see the bottom of the pond, which…

Adding incredible eyesight to the list of this body's abilities, I mentally added to an ever-growing list.

This world is a hell. That much is certain. And while it has rules and laws of nature, they make little sense, and the possibility for a civilization to even exist here seems unlikely.

One would have to be someone the likes of which history has only seen in Genghis Khan, or Alexander the Great, or Napoleon, to build even the foundations for civilized life in this land.

Someone who does not exist.

The monsters come in the night, and burn in the day, so they must appear at some point by some means in the darkness. After all, just a little tree shade makes these zombies fail to burn; why not have them come straight from the dark-

Eyes on me.

I whirled around when I reflexively felt someone staring right at me, but the senses I gained from the Rhine seems to have betrayed me, because I see nothing but the trees behind me.

Even still, I was reminded of the figure I had seen in my first few moments in this new world. Back then, I thought it was a hallucination, but now? With all of this madness the world seems to run on? I don't quite think it's a hallucination anymore… maybe. 70% chance that it's still just a hallucination, and Being X is just fucking with me. Or watching me.

I looked up at the sky, slightly shielding my eyes from the sun, though I found it unnecessary as I was unaffected by the sun's blinding light. That, or this sun isn't as harmful as the ones in my last world were. Could be either.

It's a few hours after noon, 1530 if I'm correct. That means there's only a few hours of sunlight left, and considering what happens at night…

"Freshwater pond… Plenty of trees to make cover with… This should work." I said, bringing my axe into my hand and moving over to one of the trees to cut it down.

Keeping myself safe during the night is much preferred to running or fighting through the entirety of it, especially when it means I would have to possibly backtrack some distance or punch some more trees and hear that awful wooden pick on stone again. Would I even wake up again, and would it even be at morning like last time?

I made sure to keep on the lookout as I cut it down, yet I still felt like I was being watched, even with my frequent checking. Perhaps I'm being too paranoid.

…No, Being X is still out there. There's plenty to be paranoid about.

The smell of the last of my uncooked pork being grilled on a fire helped me calm down from realizing that I had some entity shadowing me. Surprisingly, it was still as fresh as it was when I cleaved it from the corpse of the pig. Either my inventory is also a refrigerator, or rot is very different in this world compared to my last two.

The scratching on the improvised walls didn't calm me, however.

"Even now, I still can't catch a break," I said, taking most of the finished chops into my inventory and beginning to eat one of them.

To wait out the night, I had set up walls using the trees around the area, encircling the entire pond. While I could've added a roof… I didn't trust that gravity was completely screwed. Perhaps my abilities keep things floating for only a certain period of time, or things fall so slowly that they appear motionless. Either way, I didn't want to take the chance.

Of course, it doesn't keep the spiders out, I thought, looking over at the withering pile of spiders who had tried to come over the wall, only to be speared once they got over. But I'd rather not get blown up while trying to enjoy a meal again.

I suppose this isn't too different to the Rhine, the Eastern Front, or even Illdoa. Though instead of fearing bombing raids and artillery blowing up our camp, I just have to worry about the undead horde and their strange monster comrades.

Comrades…

I paused mid-bite, looking up at the night sky. A half-moon shone over me, and unfamiliar stars dotted the sky. How long has it truly been since my second life ended? Have my subordinates already reincarnated? Or has it been only a few days for them too?

The crackle of the fire snapped me back to reality, pushing away unnecessary thoughts and returning me to thinking about my survival from here on out.

I know nothing of where I am, nor where I should go. Should I try heading out near the sea? Should I try looking for any trace of civilization? Should-

I'm not alone.

My eyes snapped to the right, seeing a pair of unnaturally tall legs. The entity within my camp let out some kind of noise, and I looked up at their eyes-

"Who are you, challenger of mine sovereign reign?" an imposing voice said to me. "You do not fall within mine reach, and yet it seems you should have. If you've escaped, then mine servant must deliver mine wrath. You would do better than to defy me next time, whelp."

"KILL HER!"

I returned to the present, staring up at the freakishly tall entity before me. Long, gangly limbs extended from a too-small torso, with a large head mounted on top of it with (familiar?) purple eyes widening as mine do. The thing was completely black, save for the aforementioned eyes, and I feel like they weren't what just talked.

Taking out my spear, I quickly shoved the rest of my meal into my mouth. Dammit, again?! Whatever that voice was, it felt… far too familiar. Especially the feeling of wanting to bow before my-NO.

Not again… I thought as the monster's jaw opened up wider and wider, and static similar to what a radio would unleash when particularly harsh interference cropped up. How was I supposed to know I violated someone's authority if I never even knew who they are? I still don't know who they are! If they don't recognize me… This isn't Him. This is another.

The entity screamed at me and started rushing over, its eyes glazed over and filled with rage. I readied my spear at it-

Only for it to vanish and reappear to my right!-

I barely managed to move enough to avoid the swipe, ducking backwards and stumbling away. Once I regained my footing, I primed my spear, this time ready as the thing took another swipe, managing to lodge my spear into the torso-

And have it snap off inside it completely.

Shit.

Suddenly unarmed, the monster seized the opportunity to strike, slashing the long claws that emerged once it entered its rage across my chestplate.

I felt not only the feeling of the claws scraping against my chestplate, but the claws bypassing my armor to wound me without even breaking the plates. A wet feeling sprayed out across my chest, and pain quickly followed.

Attempting to run an analgesic formula, despite how habitual it was for me, still hasn't been able to work. I staggered back, summoning my sword out of my inventory and trying not to scream in pain, instead letting out a grunt through gritted teeth.

It teleported again, attempting to strike me from behind. My mental enhancement just barely let me avoid the monster's strike, giving me an opportunity to punish them in return.

With a quick slash, my sword cleaved off half of its arm, spraying blood across the ground and staining my armor and uniform. It tried to recoil away, but I didn't give it that chance.

I lunged forwards, tackling it into the pond. Water splashed around us, and the thing screamed out, the static growing even louder. I aimed my sword for the thing's heart-

PAIN.

I screamed as the pain ran up across my body, a feeling of burning coming from the blood splatter of the monster and the water.

My grip on the sword loosened, and I need to get out get out get OUT-

My vision blurred into darkness, the last thing I heard being a loud splash after a strange vwhomp.

Wet.

My body feels incredibly wet, like waking up in a cold sweat while on leave.

I opened my eyes, seeing not the night sky I expected, nor the beach I returned to the last time I died, but instead the shade of a small sand-colored stone roof.

Where… am I?

I lifted myself up and looked over myself, expecting to see a drenched uniform, based on how damp everything felt. I was right about the uniform being drenched.

As it turns out, I was in a shallow pool of water that was relatively clear. Aside from the discoloration of blood, of course. It was held in by sand-colored stone, the first stone that wasn't some nondescript gray rock. Four pillars stretched out of the water, holding the roof up and protecting me from the sun.

Five scratch marks stretched across the top chestplate of my armor, not quite going all the way through, and yet…

A brief check under the plate showed that the wounds underneath had closed up, but were still red, and my uniform was torn up enough that I was not going to take it off just yet to avoid hypothermia, armor included. At most, what I needed to find was a warm, dry place to-

Oh. That's why the stone looks like sand.

I noticed the terrain around the well(?) I was in, seeing nothing but the desert for several kilometers. On the one hand, it was certainly a convenient area for drying myself off. On the other hand…

…I hate sand.

Sand is coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere. During my battalion's tour in the African front, it got into canteens, mouths, eyes, and even into the goggles we were given to keep the sand out of our eyes. It became routine for me to empty my pockets of sand after every mission, and I still was shaking some of it out of my hair all the way in Moskva.

The only time I didn't care to complain about it was when little bits of it got into our battalion dinner after Desert Pasta.

That was a good time.

Which is why this fucking sucks! I thought, trying to avoid death by sheer boredom. I had already gone over the physical quirks of my body in my mind, as three days have passed since I came to (again) and I've barely had to drink or relieve myself. I could probably count on Weiss' left hand the amount of times I felt the need to do either, and I'd still have two of his fingers left over. Three if I used his right hand.

I wonder how he's been handling the battalion without me.

…Without me.

I shook my head, sighing as I continued to trudge through the endless desert. I wasn't sure how I ended up here, perhaps it had something to do with that monster that attacked me. Honestly, the whole thing made very little sense.

Assuming the voice was some kind of authority in this world, I hadn't ever met or heard of them before, so my "challenge" to their rule was entirely unintentional. If he had acted as a rational individual, he would've told me how exactly I was violating his reign, and how to go about fixing it, if it was possible to mend our unintentionally broken bridges.

Of course, I should stop expecting people's rationality to win over their emotions at this point. Instead of properly approaching me, he sent what I can presume to be some kind of minion after me. I still don't know how I "defied" him, which leads to another thing about all this.

This is all too familiar for me.

Before, when I realized Being X was corrupting my mind with the Type 95, I had been able to avoid it by using the cursed orb as little as possible. Yet the corrupting feeling I felt from this entity wasn't a sick, faux warmth, but something more akin to, well, static.

Which I can still hear, if faintly.

That might mean I'm still being chased by that monster, in which case this new eldritch entity is certainly out to get me.

Get in line, I thought, cresting a hill- Is that sand floating?

Floating two meters off the ground next to a hill, a large patch of sand levitated in the air, similar to the trees did when I deconstructed their mid-sections. Once again, defying the fundamental laws of nature. Without me doing anything beforehand.

…Alright, maybe I could've built a roof earlier. Maybe it would've kept out the spiders, and that shadow.. Thing. I'll think of a name for it later.

Actually, looking closer, there seems to be something different about the sand. Bits of it seem to be falling, excluding a section of the floating pile that was sandstone rather than pure sand. Maybe my theory is still correct, and this anti-gravity effect only lasts for a small amount of time.

"Or maybe gravity is just screwed up, like the rest of this world. There's probably something that reverses gravity entirely, isn't there?" I said, tapping the bottom of the sand pile. Which, turns out, was a mistake, as the pile's gravity returned to normal.

Right on top of me.

"Scheisse!"

Now I understand why my men didn't want to go back to the mountains for training.

If they weren't kidding about avalanches, then this must've been how my men felt when I trained them. Not that I remember this part.

I barely managed to get my head above the sand when it buried me, with the rest of my body being stuck inside the sand.

I wonder how much I don't remember because of that cursed artifact. I know I missed some things, but how much of that was truly just training? Did those war maniacs follow me so closely because of something I said under the influence?

…Is this how it was for my coworkers who claimed to have forgotten what they said after a few drinks?

Eventually, I managed to squirm my way out of the sand tomb I nearly put myself in by accident. Well, that was a lesson learned that, in all honesty, I should've seen coming. That at least confirms my theory-

Why is the sandstone still floating?

"...fine, partial confirmation. At least it applies to sand, of all things…"

Night had fallen again, and this time I learned my lesson. Instead of just building a giant wall, I was sitting atop a pillar of wood I collected before I came here, high enough above the ground that the monsters couldn't even notice me. A spider did make an attempt, but failed. The small platform I made let me rest rather easily, so now it was just a matter of waiting out the night.

Which was taking its sweet time. So, some more thinking was well warranted.

Sand will fall in accordance with the natural laws of reality, but only when prompted to. That, I learned, twice over, because apparently this desert has plenty of sand traps. I can only imagine how many cave entrances are hidden by sand floating just high enough to be a deadly drop. How did I discover these sand traps exist?

"Because I kicked a dead bush and nearly fell into a ravine that was below me!" I complained, lamenting the ever-growing nonsense of this world. "The one time it starts to follow natural laws, it decides to make the deserts a figurative minefield!"

At this point, I realized the double-edged sword of not needing sleep has reared its ugly head. My brain has been running non-stop for four days now, nearing five, and only pausing when I die or pass out from pain. Even if this body was truly blessed with the ability to avoid the physical pitfalls of not sleeping, the mental ones…

I could really use a bed at this point. A nice, warm bed. Soft, too.

I've tried falling asleep on the floor, but my body refused to even think of going to bed. Unless Being X decided to add insomnia to the list of curses he's given me, which is very likely, I could very well be unable to feel the joys of uninterrupted sleep.

"At least this night is quiet enough."

SCREEEEEECHHHhh!

My eyes shot open, just in time to roll out of the way of a flying blur. I managed to stay on the platform and stood up, scanning the skies for attacking m- no, not mages.

Three dark-blue creatures floated above me, looking like tiny wyverns with oversized bat wings. Their bodies seemed almost ethereal, or ghost-like.

"...Another night, another new type of enemy to face. Damn you, Being X!"

Day 7

Grass.

Soft, luxurious grasslands. Filled with nothing but docile herds of livestock.

I couldn't help but laugh at the sight as I forded the river, escaping the desolate plains of the desert once and for all.

"I really, really hate sand now. Especially when it tries to kill you half the time!" I said, collapsing on the side of a hill from pure exhaustion

Four days and three nights in the desert, surviving on the food I had cooked earlier and being harassed by undead, suicide bomber plants (even though there was hardly any vegetation alive in the desert itself, they were still stalking the wastes), oversized arachnids, and then the constant screeching of those wraith-bat things, and the ever-present static I've been hearing since the encounter with the tall entity that I still don't have a name for.

If only I had some kind of academic study of the way this world worked. Being X didn't send me to a world with completely unfamiliar rules for how it worked, and even when something new was present, it was understood through scientific means. Here?

He changed the very rules of nature, and gave me abilities that…

…No. Much of the way the world works is still the same. Some things are changed, but to the untrained eye, it would simply be magic.

…Like my abilities.

The clouds crawled across the perfectly blue sky, casting very little shadow as they passed over. The feeling of the sun's gaze was warm, yet it wasn't the uncomfortable kind that you would expect on a summer day. Judging by how things feel, it must be spring. If seasons still exist in this world.

"A different world, with different rules. New magic, strange entities, and another entity out to get me. And yet…" I muttered, watching as a stereotypical white chicken walked over to me, obstructing the right side of my view. "Livestock freely roaming without a single farmer in sight, most hostile beings burn away in the daylight or aren't at all hostile, and food that tastes better than some meals I've had well away from the war. Is this truly hell?"

I sat up, looking at the bird next to me. Food was scarce in the deserts, yes, but everywhere else? One might consider this land a paradise compared to any of the worlds I've seen, Earth or Terra. Mentally, I looked through the known methods for constructing knives, and scowled when nothing showed up. Fine, I'll make one. A single piece of stone and a stick. There. Happy?

New construction method discovered: Stone Knife. Other materials can be used to create knives in place of stone.

It's that easy. No need for complicated techniques, passed down by generations until the tide of Industry inevitably replaces them. Everything needed to make a nice, decent quality knife done purely by magic. And, outside of perhaps visualizing a mental grid, no formulas needed.

The knife flicked into my hand, and in one quick motion I sliced the neck of the chicken next to me. The other animals around me were completely unphased by my elimination of their prey comrade, and I was free to butcher it in peace.

No formulas needed…

At that thought, I paused. Have I been going about things wrong? Formulaic magic, the type I knew from my second life, was scientific and industrialized, completed with the aid of Computation Orbs (or precision pocket watches, if you get what the Yanks put out). Without the orbs, you could only do some basic tricks with formulas.

Yet the mages of pre-industrial times could pull things off without the use of formulas, even if they were rather minor compared to what the Orbs allowed you to do. Only a few could compare to even a C-ranked combat mage of today. If they didn't pull from formulas, if they didn't use the mana it uses, what did they use?

Aside from Being X, they likely had some other way of forcing mana to flow. And if this body has magical powers that can manipulate reality in ways few could even dream of…

I dropped the mental enhancement for the first time since I came to, and then tried running it again, this time ignoring the formula and just letting the mana flow.

It worked. Flawlessly. Better than before. I could even run some other spells at the same time. The pain in my chest from the still-healing wounds finally went away with some light analgesics, and I felt mana course through my body properly yet again. Mostly.

There were some blockages, like a part of myself trying to push down on my magic. Like an immune system response, but separate from said system.

I ran a detection spell on myself and-

This mana running through my body is not what I felt in my second life.

If I had to describe each form of Mana I felt, it'd be colorful. Formulas ran a light blue, while the mana I was now using was… Silver. Because of course it would be. My new magical abilities, the ones that let me construct and deconstruct reality, and the collected mana from what I've eliminated, felt like the green of nature itself. And the part pushing against my mana?

Purple.

The spell could roughly tell where the mana poured from, and strangely enough it all poured from around the heart, except for formulas, which simply form center-mass, and the natural mana, which poured in from the outside and pooled somewhere inside me.

"I've been using magic wrong this whole time.." I muttered, staring at my hand as I ran a mage-blade spell into the knife it was holding. It worked. It didn't feel like the silver mana running my mental and physical enhancements, which was honestly trivial compared to keeping a proper formula running. If Formulaic magic forms center-mass, and the natural mana my magical abilities (and the stuff that pours out from creatures when they die at my hand) comes from outside, then the other two…

"My soul. They're a part of me."

I expanded the detection spell to my surroundings, ceasing my internal reflections, and saw how mana ran across the world around me. Each cow, each pig, each chicken milled about, barely eating any of the grass below them, as their own internal pools of mana fed them. Only the sheep seemed to eat to fill their own hunger, yet their mana was the exact same, if a little restless.

There must not be any predators, as not even the spiders I could detect nearby hunted in the daylight, and only seemed interested in me during the night. Which means they're fed by their mana as well. I could also detect the monsters beneath me, hiding in caves out of sight.

None of the pools grew or drained like mine did. And out of all them, only one was different, all the way in the distance from the desert which I came fro-

It's following me.

I sprang to my feet, realizing that the entity from before had the same mana as that distant pool in the desert did. Moreover, I saw it moving- no, teleporting from place to place, seemingly tracking my trail.

"Fuck!" I shouted, and immediately began sprinting away. Get food later, avoid death now!

I collapsed against a tree, far enough away from the entity that my detection spell couldn't detect it.

"Why is that entity able to teleport? Is that what that mana allows for? And…" I sputtered out, breathing rapidly and shakily. "Why do I have that mana?"

Making a tactical retreat is often an organized, if chaotic affair. That was not what I did.

I was routed. Without a single shot fired.

I scowled at my own cowardice, but part of me knew it was the correct choice. It would've found me eventually, even if I had hid. If I could detect mana, then surely it could as well.

At some point, I had switched my detection spell back to formulaic magic, since keeping it up with my… soul was more tiring than relying on formulaic mana reserves compared to the enhancements. Perhaps there's some kind of trick I have to pull in order for it to be less taxing. What was weird was how fast my mana reserves, both of them, restored themselves.

I stared at the ground, trying to focus my breath. The entity chasing me can partly ignore my armor, teleport, and has mana that I can feel within myself, which raises a large number of questions. Yet I'm still unsure of how well it can track me, but I have nothing to go off of, so treating things as a worst-case scenario.

Huh. There seems to be pink petals coating the ground. How long has it been since I've seen a-

"Wait a minute."

I looked up at the tree I was leaning on, and was met with something I hadn't seen in almost sixteen years. A sakura tree. How didn't I notice what this forest was?

To my right, the grasslands I was just in stretched towards the river that separated the desert in the distance. To my left, the sakura trees continued on for at least a little bit longer. I could keep running, but part of me dislikes showing such cowardice in front of my co-

"...I suppose I should make some new weapons," I stated, getting off the tree I was leaning on and placing the construction table next to me. A new sword, a new spear, a new-

…There really aren't any other weapons in the encyclopedia, huh?

Few more spears and a spare knife, then. Between my bow with very limited arrows, the spears that I can throw, and potentially any of my shorter knives, I should have plenty of ranged options at my disposal. Then again, keeping them at a distance might be a mistake, considering the freakishly long limbs on them.

Deconstructing the table again, I scanned the grove around me. There were some animals about, so I could refill my rations.

Good thing campfires are so easy to make. Though, with how they aren't able to be picked up without turning into charcoal, I suppose it's more of an instant campfire… spell?

Definitely need a new name for that.

I felt it enter the grove, yet I didn't look up just yet. The static was much louder now that it was close enough to see me. Instead, I just stared at the fire as the last of the meat finished cooking.

"So, did you happen to calm down over the last few days?" I asked, knowing I likely wasn't going to get an answer. I did not.

Sighing, I stood up and looked at the wide-mouthed monster leaning over the fire at me. A spear appeared in my hand, and I took a step back.

Which was the right move evidently, as a clawed hand stretched through the fire at where I was. The thing's eyes widened in surprise, and warped to my side. A single foot stepped down onto the ground, before the ground itself caved.

I felt a grin stretch across my face.

If I was still in my first life, this would've likely been a war crime. If it was my second life, this would've made it a war crime. Here? Some leaves and flower petals held up over a hole by some spider string I gathered, and a few sharpened spears stuck upwards in the ground, is perfectly legal.

Probably.

The thing shrieked as two of the wooden spears dug into its right leg, and another grazing its left as it fell in. From what I could see, blood flowed freely out from the wounds, and the slight movement caused by the pain coursing through the monster's body snapped the impaled spears off inside it.

It warped again, but I was able to track where the mana directed it, allowing me to avoid the strike.

Moving through the spike-trap minefield I created in the time I spent waiting for the entity to arrive, I made sure to watch its mana, in order to understand one of the strange new variables in this world's magical combat. That is, if magical combat here is even a thing, or if it simply doesn't have formulas yet.

Which would be an unexplored and unexploited market opportunity I could take advantage of. Later, obviously, I thought, avoiding another lunge from the tall entity. It seems the parts of the spear that broke off in its leg stayed through the teleportation. Something I might have to remember later.

I threw my spear at the monster, drawing my sword as the improvised javelin sailed just over the beast. I wonder if I could- Not now! Explore possible construction methods after the threat of death passes!

Jumping over to another safe spot on the ground, I closed in on the entity, which barely managed to avoid several of my traps. The monster teleported away, reappearing behind-!

I ducked, avoiding the now panicked swipes the thing was making, and whirled around to their backside. One of my knives flicked into my other hand, glowing with a mage blade formula, and slammed into the back of the thing's neck.

I backed off as the thing gargled out a scream, spraying blood across the ground as it fell to its knees. With a wound like that, it would perish shortly…

"...or not," I ground out as the thing managed to stand up, weary but alive… somehow. The formula had dissipated, leaving the dull-grey point of the blade sticking out of the thing's neck. But it wasn't in any real condition to fight.

The monster was shaking, leaning on the less injured leg and holding themselves up with one of those long arms. Its blood, practically gushing with the purple mana that seems to run in both of us, covered the black skin of the thing. And the static had dulled, mixed with the monster's ragged breaths.

Cautiously, I approached, expecting it to lash out. Yet it didn't.

Even as I was face to face with it, the thing didn't strike. Actually, it seemed to be fighting the urge to fight me. Why? Wasn't I spitting in the face of some authority of theirs? Or… did this thing fight me unwilling?

"...'mine servant', Huh?" I muttered as I got within my arm's reach of the… Is this really a monster? Are they sentient, forced to- Oh. "So He isn't the only one puppeteering people, huh?"

At the mention of Being X, the mo- person recoiled, nearly snapping into a blind rage before stopping just short of striking me. That, and I reflexively dug my blade into their chest when they moved. Oops.

They collapsed onto my blade completely, their eyes losing the glaze that I could only assume was what I looked like when using the Type 95. Despite the large size of the thing, it wasn't that hard to hold them up. Must be very light, or maybe it's because parts of them are fading away in purple smoke.

"⍑𝙹∴ ꖎ𝙹リ⊣ ᔑ⊣𝙹 ⍑ᔑ⍊ᒷ ||𝙹⚍ ᒷ ̇/╎ᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ↸, ⎓∷ᒷᒷ 𝙹⎓ ⍑╎ᓭ ℸ ̣ ᔑ╎リℸ ̣ ?"

"...What?" I asked, surprised by it finally saying something. Of course, new world, new languages. Last time I was able to get by because my first and second lives' languages were the exact same, but now?

"||𝙹⚍ ᔑ∷ᒷ ᓵ⚍∷ᓭᒷ↸ ᔑᓭ ∴ᒷ ᔑ∷ᒷ, ||ᒷℸ ̣ ||𝙹⚍∷ ʖ𝙹↸|| ∷ᒷᒲᔑ╎リᓭ ᔑᓭ ᒲ╎リᒷ 𝙹リᓵᒷ ↸╎↸.

⍑𝙹∴?"

The thing's extremities, the few that it had, began to vanish, as well as the ends of their limbs.

"⍑𝙹∴ ⍑ᔑ⍊ᒷ ||𝙹⚍ ∷ᒷᓭ╎ᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ↸ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ʖᒷℸ ̣ ∷ᔑ||ᒷ∷'ᓭ ᓵ⚍∷ᓭᒷ?

∴⍑|| ↸𝙹 ||𝙹⚍ ⊣ꖎ𝙹∴ ꖎ╎ꖌᒷ ⍑ᒷ 𝙹リᓵᒷ ↸╎↸?

∴⍑|| ᓵᔑリ ||𝙹⚍ ∷ᒷᓭ╎ᓭℸ ̣ ?"

"I really wish I knew your language right about now."

Their eyes seemed to look… human. Purple-colored, but still human. How?

"⍑ᒷꖎ!¡ ⚍ᓭ.

∴⍑|| ᓵᔑリ'ℸ ̣ ╎ ∷ᒷᒲᒷᒲʖᒷ∷?

⍑ᒷꖎ!¡ ᒲᒷ."

Despite the fact that their limbs were basically gone at this point, it still floated on my blade piercing it. The broken spears fell to the ground softly as the flesh around them vanished.

"⎓∷ᒷᒷ ⚍ᓭ.

ʖ∷ᒷᔑꖌ 𝙹⚍∷ ᓵ⍑ᔑ╎リᓭ.

╎ ↸𝙹リ'ℸ ̣ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ᓭ⚍⎓⎓ᒷ∷ ᔑリ|| ꖎ𝙹リ⊣ᒷ∷."

They were crying now. Why? Was it because I killed them? Or because it was free from whatever being held sway over it?

"ꖌ╎ꖎꖎ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ !¡⚍!¡!¡ᒷℸ ̣ 𝙹⎓ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ʖᒷℸ ̣ ∷ᔑ||ᒷ∷."

Why do I get the feeling I know their pain?

"!¡ꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ."

The entity was gone, leaving behind a handful of mana orbs (not purple, surprisingly) and some kind of… pearl? It seemed to radiate that strange mana, but it wasn't alive. Is this its heart or something?

"...If only I knew what it was saying…"

Perhaps hell isn't the correct way to describe this place. Purgatory, maybe.

Maybe this is the Garden of Eden, then.

This world, I now realize, is too good to be hell. Yes, the monstrous dead rise at night. Yes, I can't rely on my old worlds' understanding of nature's laws. But there aren't any actual predators I've seen, the food is luxurious and easy to cook, and there's no shortage of magical ways to manipulate reality as I see fit.

Also, I have to say…

"It's beautiful…"

The exit to the groves led me to a sea-side area, where a river spilled out from a forest's lake on the left and grass-covered cliffs overlook the sea and the forest to my right, with a waterfall spilling out from the cliffside itself.

Mentally, I began mapping out spots to clear for setting up a base of operations, before shaking my head at war habits taking over. If this world is a paradise, then I wouldn't need to worry about war. I could live a peaceful life.

Instead, the picture of a house on that cliffside formed, with all of what I need to live in this world nice and organized. I could plant crops instead of constantly hunting and gathering like my very distant ancestors. I could live the retirement I chased all this time.

…Being X is an absolute idiot, isn't he?

The object bears completely unknown origins, identifying itself as an 'Elytran Flight Enhancement Harness, Type 67' in three of the seven languages printed on it, these being Germanian, Akinese, and Albish, in that order, though a few languages mix in-between them. It could be best described as some attempt at a non-magical means of flight, using propellant to, presumably, lift and maneuver a person off the ground.

The most interesting part is what seems to be missing. A slot for an unknown Computational Orb model sits roughly at the chest, and something on the back seems to be missing as well. The only other identifying marks, other than a serial number, is the name for wherever it came from.

There is no known place referred to as the "Imperial Federation" anywhere on Earth. The origins of this harness is completely unknown. Fitting, since it washed up on a beach facing Frisia.

-Albish Intelligence Service report, Oct. 4th, 1933

First known instance of extraterrestrial items appearing on Earth