The first thing I noticed when I woke up wasn't sunlight.
It was my bed
Or… what used to be my bed.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes, still half dreaming. My hand brushed over springs jutting out like rusty claws. The mattress sagged under me; more holes than a cushion, and when I shifted, something sharp jabbed into my side.
"Ow ow ow ow! What the…?!" I scrambled upright, only to realize the wood frame itself had splintered in half beneath me.
The whole bed looked like it had aged a thousand years overnight.
"…The hell happened here?" I muttered, patting at the sheets. Except they weren't sheets anymore they were stiff with moss, damp and green, clinging to my arms like wet rags.
I blinked, slowly turning my head. The rest of the room was no better.
Vines hung down from the ceiling like ropes. Mushrooms sprouted out of my desk. The walls, my walls were swallowed up by greenery, posters buried under layers of creeping ivy.
My heart skipped.
"No way. No way, no way, no way."
This wasn't right. This wasn't possible.
I leapt out of bed well, tried to. My foot caught in a tangle of moss, and I stumbled face first onto the floorboards.
"Ughhh!" I groaned, rolling over. "Okay… yeah, pain. So this isn't a dream."
I scrambled for my phone on the nightstand. It was half buried in dirt, but it still flickered to life with the weakest, dying glow of its battery.
When I saw the date, my throat dried.
Year: 4024.
I rubbed my eyes. Checked again. Shook the phone.
"Four… zero… two… four," I read aloud, voice cracking.
I slapped myself across the cheek.
"OW!" My face stung.
I froze.
"…Okay. Definitely awake."
The phone slipped from my hand, clattering against the floor.
I swallowed, my chest tightening.
"M-Mom? Dad?" I croaked, stumbling toward the door. "Jill? Lan? Laren?"
Silence.
"Guys?!" My voice cracked harder, echoing into nothing. "This- this isn't funny! If this is some dumb prank, you win, alright?!"
Still nothing.
The silence weighed heavier than anything I'd ever felt.
I forced myself down the stairs. Each step groaned under me, the wood soft with rot.
CREEEAK
The next step snapped
CRACK!
"AAHHHH!" I yelped, my leg plunging through the floorboard.
I flailed, nearly tumbling headfirst, but before I could pull myself free
Something moved.
Vines, alive, shot up from the crack, curling around my ankle.
My heart dropped into my stomach.
"N-N-NOPE, NOPE, NOPE!" I kicked wildly, ripping them off. "Get off me, you freaky weeds!"
Panting, I pulled myself out and collapsed against the railing.
"…Okay. Nope. Not liking this. Not at ALL liking this."
When I finally shoved the front door open, sunlight spilled over me bright and blinding.
And my jaw dropped.
The world I knew… was gone.
My neighborhood, my street, my city all swallowed. In their place: a wilderness that stretched …endlessly alien, yet familiar.
Trees towered so high they pierced the clouds. A single blade of grass swayed beside me, tall as a lamppost. Flowers bloomed in the distance, each as wide as houses, their petals dripping with sparkling dew.
Rivers carved through the land like highways, wide and rushing, glinting under the sun.
"This is… impossible," I whispered. My voice was so small against the vastness of it all.
Then a shadow passed overhead.
I looked up.
And froze.
A butterfly.
Not just a butterfly, but a giant one. Its wings stretched wider than skyscrapers, shimmering in colors so bright they painted the ground beneath it like a rainbow.
My knees shook.
"…This is straight out of a fantasy book," I muttered. "A… a giant butterfly?!"
For a split second, wonder filled me.
Then reality slapped me across the face.
WHOOSH!
The butterfly was slammed from the sky, its wings crumpling.
I staggered back, eyes bulging. "H-HUH?!"
A dragonfly, wings buzzing louder than jet engines, ripped into it with monstrous jaws.
"D-DR-DRAGONFLY?!" I screamed, covering my ears as the sound rattled my bones.
The sheer force of its buzzing shook the trees. The beast whipped its prey around, crashing into trunks the size of skyscrapers and snapping them like twigs.
My brain fried.
"…Nopenopenopenopenope!" I turned to run
FWOOOSH!
A lamppost, an actual lamppost whistled through the air like a spear, hurled from the chaos.
"NOT ME, NOT MEEEE!" I dove, rolling across the mossy ground.
THUUUD! The lamppost smashed into the dirt where I'd stood, exploding into shards.
Shards that sliced straight across my palm.
"AGHHH! SON OF A !" I clutched my hand, blood seeping between my fingers.
I glanced back, chest heaving, just in time to see the dragonfly vanish into the clouds, its prey dangling limp in its jaws.
The forest quieted.
Only the buzzing echo remained.
"…What the actual hell is happening?" I whispered, trembling.
I stumbled back into the house, desperate for something familiar. The fridge. Food. Anything.
I yanked it open then gagged.
The stench hit me like a punch. Rot. Sour, putrid rot.
Every single thing inside had decayed into mush.
I slammed it shut, coughing into my sleeve.
"Ughhh! Oh great. Rotten food. Perfect. Of course." I sighed, I went bck upstairs to my room and got a strap pouch and a scabbard to put my daggers inside
"This will come in handy soon" I said to myself
My stomach twisted. My head spun. My body felt… heavy.
Like I was being pulled somewhere.
I staggered out into the backyard. My vision blurred, edges darkening.
And that's when I saw them.
Wolves.
But not wolves.
They were wrong.
Their fur was moss green, patchy like grass. Stones jutted from their backs like jagged armor. Their glowing eyes locked onto me, cold and unblinking.
I froze, breath hitching.
"What… the hell are those?!"
The pack growled, stepping closer, their paws crunching across moss.
My heart rammed against my ribs.
Then
WHOOSH.
A shadow dropped from above.
A man.
He landed like lightning, cloak flaring behind him, blade gleaming. Without hesitation, he drove his sword straight into the first wolf's skull.
Blood sprayed.
The second lunged he spun, ducked under, and slammed his boot into its side. The impact cracked like thunder, sending it flying into a tree.
The last wolf snarled, lunging at his throat.
He twisted, blade slicing in a perfect arc clean through its neck.
The head rolled. The body collapsed.
Silence.
The man straightened, flicking blood off his blade. His cloak hid most of his face, but I caught a glimpse of hard eyes. Eyes that had seen too much.
"Hey, kid," he said flatly.
"What are you doing out here? You could've been killed."
My mouth opened and closed, words refusing to form.
"…Th-those things," I stammered,
"what were they?"
"Earth Wolves," he said simply. His voice carried a weight I didn't understand.
"…What?"
He turned, already walking.
"Follow me. It's safer than here."
I blinked. "Uh… s-sir? What's your name?"
He paused. Looked back once.
"…Rayu."
"…Weird name," I muttered before I could stop myself.
His eyes narrowed, sharp as blades.
"A-and I'm Taren Elarvek!" I blurted, bowing my head like an idiot.
Rayu just grunted and kept walking.
I swallowed, hurrying after him.
"Guess… I'm going with you."
The green furred wolf's body still hadn't cooled on the mossy dirt. Its blood had a faint glow to it, almost unnatural, like the earth itself was alive and angry. I stared at it, my breath shallow, while the cloaked man simply adjusted his hood as if nothing had happened.
"Follow me," he said bluntly. His voice was calm, almost too calm for a guy who just cut down monsters like he was swatting flies.
My feet were still glued to the ground. My mind was racing between What are those things? And what the hell just happened to Earth? But something in his tone like he wasn't asking, he was telling made my body move on its own.
"W-wait," I stammered, jogging a little to catch up, "sir, what… what were those things? They didn't look like wolves. Wolves don't have rocks growing out of their backs!"
He glanced at me over his shoulder, eyes hidden beneath the shadow of his hood. For a second, I thought I caught a flicker of amusement.
"They're Earth Wolves," he finally said. His boots crunched against the mossy dirt path as he pushed forward without slowing.
"They're not what they used to be. Nothing is."
"Earth Wolves…? That sounds like something out of a video game," I muttered to myself, still rubbing the cut on my hand from earlier.
"Video… game?" He gave me a sideways glance like I was speaking a language he hadn't heard in centuries.
I sighed, shaking my head. "Forget it. But… can you at least tell me what's going on? Why does the world look like a jungle from some fantasy movie? Where's everyone else? Where's my family?" My words were tumbling out too fast, almost desperate.
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he pushed through a wall of vines, letting them whip back into place behind him. I had to scramble just to avoid getting slapped in the face by one.
"…It's been a long time since Earth was what you think it is," he finally said, tone lower, almost like he was talking more to himself than to me.
My chest tightened. "What do you mean by long time? What year is it even? My phone said 4024 but-"
He stopped walking. Dead stop. I almost ran straight into his back.
"…You mean to tell me," he said slowly, "you woke up today and saw that date for the first time?"
I blinked, confused. "…Yeah? I went to bed… last night, I think. And then this morning, boom, the world is like… this. Jungle, monsters, whatever's happening. Why?"
His shoulders stiffened under the cloak. For the first time, his voice held a trace of genuine shock.
"Then you were asleep…" He turned his head, his eyes catching a bit of the sunlight through the leaves. They were sharp, golden, like an eagle's.
"…for two thousand years."
I stumbled back. My brain just froze. "T-two… WHAT?!" I shouted so loudly that a flock of giant birds flew up from a nearby tree, their wings beating like drums.
"Keep your voice down," he scolded, as if I had just embarrassed him.
"Do you want to attract a Titan Bear?"
I clamped my hands over my mouth instantly. "…A Titan WHAT?"
He ignored the question and kept moving, forcing me to hurry after him. My legs still felt weak, like jelly, but I didn't have a choice.
The deeper we went into the forest, the more I realized this wasn't the world I knew.
The trees weren't just tall they were enormous, their trunks so wide it would take fifty people holding hands just to wrap around one. Their roots tore through the earth like veins, splitting boulders in half. Some flowers were bigger than houses, their petals dripping with nectar that glowed faintly in the dark shadows of the forest floor.
And the sounds. Buzzing, screeching, hissing so many creatures I'd never heard before. The air was alive, heavy, like it was breathing alongside me.
I tried to keep my mind off the fear by talking, though my voice trembled. "…S- so, uh… Rayu, right? That's what you said your name was?"
"…Yes."
"Right, Rayu. Okay. Well, uh, I'mTaren .Taren Elarvek. Nice to meet you. Sort of. I mean, not really under the best circumstances but, uh "
"Save your breath, kid." He cut me off coldly.
"You'll need it."
"...Man, you're really not the talkative type, huh?" I muttered.
He didn't respond. Figures.
We walked in silence for a while, my stomach growling louder than the bugs around us. The hunger was hitting me harder now, and my wound wasn't making things better.
At one point, I caught sight of something moving between the trees: a massive centipede, its body thicker than a bus, hundreds of legs clicking against the bark as it slithered upward. I froze in place, heart pounding.
Rayu just glanced at it, unfazed. "…Titan Centipede. Stay quiet. Don't even breathe too loud."
I nodded rapidly, holding my breath until the monster disappeared higher into the canopy. My knees nearly gave out after it was gone.
"What the hell…" I whispered, clutching my chest.
"I can't survive here. I can't even walk straight without tripping, and there are things out here that could eat me whole in one bite…"
"You'll learn."
I shot him a look.
"Learn?! How am I supposed to learn to fight that thing?!"
He didn't even look at me
. "…You won't fight it. You'll learn to survive."
His words sent a chill through me. Something about the way he said it… It wasn't encouragement. It was a fact. A warning.
We finally reached a river. The water was wide, rushing, shimmering like liquid glass under the setting sun. The current looked strong enough to sweep a whole car away.
Rayu leapt onto a large rock in the middle of the river, landing without a sound. He turned back, motioning with his hand.
"Come on."
I stared at the river, then at him. "…You're joking. You expect me to just… jump?!"
"Unless you want to find out what lives underneath that river."
I peeked down at the water. For a second, I thought I saw a shadow move beneath the surface. Something massive. My stomach flipped.
"Alright, alright!" I said quickly, backing up to take a running start. "Here goes nothing!"
I jumped, landed on the rock, and instantly slipped on the wet surface.
"WOAHHH!" I windmilled my arms wildly, barely regaining my balance. My heart was in my throat.
"Don't look down," Rayu called calmly from the next rock, as if this were a casual stroll.
"Focus forward."
"Easy for you to say!" I snapped, wobbling my way to the next jump.
We kept going like this for what felt like forever, my knees shaking, my arms flailing, my throat dry with every leap. And then…
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something in the sky. A bird. But not like any bird I'd ever seen. Its wings were steel colored, razor sharp. Its eyes glowed like molten fire as it circled overhead.
"…Rayu?" I whispered nervously.
He turned, his eyes narrowing.
The bird's screech cut through the forest, piercing and sharp. It dove straight toward me.
My blood turned cold.
"What the HELL IS THAT?!" I screamed, nearly slipping right into the river.
Rayu's expression darkened. He was about to draw his bow when
A figure dropped from the sky, white hair gleaming like silver, blue eyes blazing, mechanical wings sprouting from her back.
In one swift motion, she slashed the bird with twin daggers mid flight, forcing it to veer off with a screech.
"ZY!" Rayu barked. "I told you to STAY on the hill!"
The girl ignored him, hovering with a soft whir of her Wingpack, her gaze snapping to me.
"You alright, kid?" Her voice was strong. Confident.
I blinked up at her, dumbfounded. My words tumbled out like marbles. "…Uh I T-Taren.Taren Elarvek. That's my name. I, uh…"
Rayu cut me off sharply. "He doesn't know anything. Claims he just woke up today. Like us. Like before."
The girl tilted her head, eyes narrowing curiously. "…Really?" She studied me, as if trying to see through my soul.
Then her expression softened just a bit. "How old are you,Taren?"
I gulped, still trying to catch my breath. "Nineteen."
A small smile tugged at her lips. "Nineteen, huh? That makes me older than you."
"…Wait, what?" I blinked.
"I'm eighteen." She smirked and flew off toward the hill, her silver hair catching the last rays of sunlight.
I just stood there, still processing. "…Huh? That makes me older…"
Rayu sighed, grabbed me by the back of my shirt, and without warning sprouted enormous wings from under his cloak.
"WHAT THE- YOU COULD DO THAT THIS WHOLE TIME?!" I shouted as he lifted me into the air.
"You need to learn the hard way," he said coolly, flying us toward the hill where the girl Zy waited.
"Or else you'll never survive." Rayu's wings beat against the wind with powerful strokes, carrying us higher and higher above the jungle. I clung to his cloak with both hands, screaming into his ear.
"DO YOU EVEN HAVE A LICENSE FOR THIS?!"
"Shut up," he muttered, not even flinching.
The ground below was a blur of green. From above, I could finally see just how endless the forest was. It stretched to the horizon, an ocean of treetops broken only by massive, spiraling vines that climbed into the sky like towers. Birds the size of planes glided in the distance, their shadows sliding over the canopy like moving clouds.
It was terrifying… and beautiful.
We finally descended toward a wide hill. At the top stood Zy, waiting with her arms crossed, silver hair gleaming in the setting sun. She looked like a statue, like she'd been standing there for hours.
Rayu landed smoothly, his boots crunching against the grassy hilltop. He let go mid air, though, and I collapsed to the ground, gasping.
"YOU COULDN'T HAVE WARNED ME?!" I shouted between breaths.
Rayu ignored me and folded his wings back under his cloak, as if nothing had happened.
Zy tilted her head, watching me struggle on the ground. A small smile tugged at her lips. "…You're not used to flying, huh?"
I glared up at her, still wheezing. "What was your first clue? The part where I screamed for three minutes straight, or the part where I kissed the ground just now?"
She laughed. Actually laughed, laughed. A light, airy sound that made me blink in surprise.
"You're funny," she said, crouching down a little to study me closer. "You don't look like much of a fighter… but maybe that's a good thing."
"Huh?" I asked, confused.
Before she could answer, Rayu dropped a heavy looking pack onto the ground. "Camp here. Zy, set up the tents. I'll patrol."
Without another word, he turned and vanished into the trees.
I blinked. "…Does he always do that? Just drop orders and disappear like some kind of edgy video game NPC?"
Zy covered her mouth, trying not to laugh again. "Pretty much, yeah. You'll get used to it."
She started unpacking the gear. The bag seemed way too small to hold everything she was pulling out folded tents, rolled mats, even a little metal pot. I stared, dumbfounded. "…Is that thing bottomless or something?"
"Spatial compression tech," she explained casually. "You'll learn about it later."
"Uh huh. Sure. 'Spatial compression.' Totally normal. Makes sense." I sat back, rubbing my temples.
"Man, this world just keeps getting weirder…"
I watched Rayu and Zy set up tents. Rayu had placed one near the fire, and Zy had placed the other tent near the river, but I didn't see a tent for me while they were setting them up.
Zy worked quickly, hammering stakes into the ground with precise strikes. Her movements were smooth, practiced like she'd done this a hundred times before. Within minutes, two tents were standing on the hilltop, the fabric fluttering gently in the breeze.
"Alright," she said, dusting her hands. "One for me, one for Rayu."
Rayu didn't bring another one." She whispered, but I didn't hear
"Wait, wheres ny tent?" I blinked. "I guess I'll worry about that later."
Her lips twitched, almost like she was hiding another laugh. "Don't worry about it. The dirt might end up being safer."
"Not funny," I muttered, shivering at the thought of another Earth Wolf attack.
Zy pulled a small container from her pack and lit a faint blue flame, setting it under the pot. The fire gave off no smoke, only a soft glow. She began cooking something that smelled… surprisingly good.
The aroma hit me, and my stomach growled so loudly that Zy actually snorted.
"Hungry much?" she teased.
"Hey, it's not my fault I woke up in a mossy coffin this morning, fought killer wolves, almost drowned, and then got yeeted across the sky by a birdman over there!" I waved dramatically toward the forest where Rayu had vanished.
Zy laughed again. This time, she didn't even try to hide it. Her shoulders shook as she stirred the pot. "…You're different. Most people I've met since waking up just cry, or panic, or shut down. But you…" She glanced at me, eyes glinting.
"You complain. Loudly."
"Hey, everyone has their coping mechanisms!" I defended myself, crossing my arms.
Dinner turned out to be some kind of stew. I didn't ask what was in it mostly because I was afraid of the answer. The chunks of meat didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before, and the vegetables glowed faintly in the dark. But the taste…
"…Holy crap," I said after the first bite.
"This is actually amazing."
Zy smirked. "Told you."
We ate in relative silence, except for the occasional slurp from me and the soft hum Zy made under her breath. When we finished, the sun had dipped fully below the horizon. The forest came alive with glowing insects, strange calls, and the distant howl of something I really didn't want to meet.
The wind picked up, rustling the tents. I stretched, yawning. "Well, guess I'll see if there's one inside this tent."
I stepped towards Zy's tent, only for Zy to suddenly block the entrance with both arms.
"Uh what are you doing?" I asked.
"This one's mine," she said firmly.
"…So what, I get the other one?"
She hesitated. Just for a moment. Then her eyes flicked away, and her voice lowered. "…Rayu only packed one extra."
I froze. "…Wait. You mean…?"
"We don't have another tent since we didn't expect to find any survivors," she explained.
"So where am I going to sleep?" I asked
"Well, I would make you sleep outside, but I can't do that with Earth's circumstances, so.." she said
"So?" I repeated
Her cheeks flushed the faintest pink. "…We have to share since Rayu would make you survive out here without mercy."
I blinked. My brain short circuited. "…Eh?"
"Don't get any ideas!" she blurted out quickly, waving her arms in front of her. "It's just for sleeping. Nothing else! You stay on your side, I stay on mine. Got it?!"
"O- of course! Yeah, totally! I'm not a creep or anything!" I stammered, hands up like I was surrendering.
She narrowed her eyes, studying me carefully, then sighed. "…Fine. Just don't snore. I wouldn't want to share with you, but at the same time, I wouldn't want you getting eaten."
"I don't snore," I muttered as I crawled inside.
The tent was… small. Way too small for two people. Our shoulders almost brushed even when we turned in opposite directions. I pulled the blanket over myself, staring at the faint glow of the campfire outside the tent flap.
After a long silence, Zy's voice came, softer now. "…You really don't remember anything? About… What happened before? How did you end up here?"
I hesitated, staring at the shadows dancing on the tent wall. "…No. Just… going to bed in my house. And then waking up in that ruin this morning."
Zy was quiet for a while. Then she whispered, almost like she didn't mean for me to hear: "…You're just like us."
I rolled onto my back, glancing at her profile in the dim light. She looked… tired. Sad, even.
Before I could ask what she meant, thunder rumbled in the distance. The wind howled louder. The tent shook.
And suddenly, Zy scooted closer, clutching the blanket. Her arm brushed against mine.
"…Storms," she muttered, almost embarrassed. "I hate storms."
I blinked, heat rushing to my face. "…Y-you could've just said so."
"Shut up," she mumbled, hiding her face.
The storm raged on outside, but in the cramped tent, with Zy pressed close and the faint warmth of the fire still in the air… I felt, for the first time all day, like maybe just maybe I wasn't completely alone. Morning came with the sound of birds. Not normal birds, these sounded like they had been given subwoofers and megaphones for throats.
"SKWAAAAA!"
"WHOOOOOMMP!"
I shot upright in the tent, hair sticking in every possible direction. "WHAT who turned the volume up to max?!"
Zy sat cross legged beside me, already awake, sipping from a small cup of steaming liquid. She didn't even flinch at the eardrum shattering cries outside.
"Morning," she said calmly, as if this was completely normal.
"Morning?!" I rubbed my temples. "That sounded like a car crash mixed with a T Rex!"
She smirked. "You'll get used to it."
I groaned, rolling onto my back again. That's when the tent flap ripped open.
Rayu stood there, arms crossed, the morning sun glowing behind him like he was trying way too hard to be dramatic.
"Get up," he ordered.
I squinted at him. "Wow. No 'good morning,' no breakfast, no warning. Just straight to 'get up.' Love the hospitality."
"Training starts now," he said, ignoring me completely.
I blinked. "…Training? Already? Don't I at least get like… a vacation day after almost dying yesterday?"
Rayu's eyes narrowed. "The world won't give you a vacation. Out here, you're already dead if you're not prepared."
I gulped. "…That's… morbid."
"Outside. Now." He turned and walked away.
Zy gave me a sympathetic look, but there was amusement in her eyes too. "Good luck."
"Don't say it like I'm walking to my execution!" I groaned, dragging myself out of the tent.
The hilltop became my training ground. The grass was still wet with dew, the air crisp and cool. In the distance, the forest stretched endlessly, glowing faintly in the morning light.
Rayu stood across from me, arms folded. He looked like a strict coach from a nightmare.
"Show me what you can do," he commanded.
"Uh… what can I do? Like… What exactly are we talking about? Push ups? Karate moves? I only ever went to the gym because my teacher felt bad for me."
"Fight me," he said flatly.
I froze. "…Fight you. You mean physically fight. Like, right now. With my bare hands. Against you."
"Yes."
I laughed nervously, looking around. "Haha, good one. Where's the hidden camera? Am I being punked?"
His expression didn't change.
"…Oh no, you're serious," I realized.
Before I could protest further, Rayu suddenly blurred forward like he teleported. One second, he was standing across the hill, the next, he was inches from me, fist aimed at my face.
"GYAAAHHH!" I screamed, falling backward on instinct. His punch stopped just short of my nose, the wind from it ruffling my hair.
My heart nearly exploded out of my chest. "ARE YOU INSANE?!"
"That was holding back," he said coldly. "Get up."
"Nope! I value my face too much!" I scrambled backward.
Rayu's eyes narrowed. "If you can't even stand your ground, you'll die the next time you face a beast."
"Yeah, well, at least I'll die with all my bones intact!"
Rayu didn't hesitate. He attacked again, faster this time. I yelped, ducked, and rolled across the grass, flailing like a ragdoll. His blows cut through the air where I'd just been, shockwaves rattling my teeth.
It wasn't a fight. It was a slaughter. A comedy slaughter.
"OW! OW! OW!" I shouted each time I barely dodged, stumbling around like a drunk chicken.
At one point, I tried to punch him back. My fist connected with his chest and immediately recoiled like I'd just hit solid steel.
"YEOWW! I think I broke my knuckles!" I cried, shaking my hand.
Rayu didn't even blink.
The training went on like that: me screaming, him attacking, Zy sitting nearby with her chin propped on her hand, trying very hard not to laugh.
Finally, Rayu landed a hit not full force, but enough to send me flying across the grass and crashing into a tree.
I slid down the trunk, groaning. "…I think my soul just left my body…"
Rayu walked toward me, his expression hard. "Pathetic. You won't survive a week at this rate."
Something in me snapped. I was exhausted, sore, humiliated… and now he was insulting me?
"HEY!" I shouted, dragging myself up. "Cut me some slack, man! I literally woke up here YESTERDAY! I don't even know what's going on, and you expect me to fight like some kind of superhero?!"
Rayu didn't stop. He loomed over me, eyes like knives. "Excuses won't save you."
Before I could retort, Zy suddenly stepped between us, arms outstretched.
"That's enough, Rayu."
Her voice was sharp, sharper than I'd heard before. Her silver eyes burned with anger.
"He's not like us," she said firmly. "He wasn't trained. He doesn't know this world. Pushing him this hard will only break him."
Rayu's jaw tightened. "Weakness will get him killed."
"Then let him grow at his own pace!" Zy snapped. "Or do you want to be the reason another one of us doesn't make it?"
The air went heavy.
Rayu glared at her for a long moment… then finally stepped back, cloak swaying in the wind. "…Fine. But if he slows us down, it's on you."
He turned, walking away.
Zy stayed in front of me, shoulders tense. Her fists were clenched. Slowly, she turned her head, looking back at me.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly.
I swallowed hard. My chest hurt, my pride hurt even more, but… seeing her stand up for me like that…
"Y-yeah," I muttered. "Thanks."
She gave me a small smile. Just for a second. Then she helped me back to my feet.
Rayu returned shortly after, tossing something at my feet. It clattered across the grass, some kind of glowing cube, faintly humming with energy.
"Your first lesson," he said. "Open it."
I stared at the cube, nervous. "…Open it? How? Is there a button, or…?"
The cube pulsed, almost like it was alive. A low hum filled the air. The hairs on my arms stood up.
"Just touch it," Rayu instructed.
I hesitated, then slowly reached out. My fingers brushed the surface
and light exploded outward, swallowing the hilltop in blinding radiance.
My vision went white.
And that… was the beginning of a new world.