I could still hear them as I dreamed.
While running through Geldekairn, I heard the bloody screams of dwarves and humans alike as they were eaten alive by monsters.
The roars and screeches of said monsters echoed through the dwarven city that we called home...
But we could no longer call that place our home.
It was gone... Or rather, we were gone.
In the few moments that I had been conscious before arriving in this place, I noticed something.
The air felt different. Like it was missing something that we had grown so used to. It was heavy...harder to breathe in, almost.
My exhaustion from the battle we'd just escaped from multiplied greatly after I revived Isabella. I collapsed after making sure she was safe.
I don't know how much time passed while I was out, but eventually, I opened my eyes.
I could hear the sounds of someone crying.
"It's gone! Everything is gone! Why!? We were so happy!"
The voice of my wife wailing in sorrow at our loss.
I could understand her pain...
I felt a terrible sadness within me, but I decided to push it away.
As I slowly sat up, I noted that the sun was setting here...
Although Dufoth told us the Black Ooze would be arriving much later, he underestimated its speed.
I believe it was still morning when we were attacked. The actual battle lasted less than an hour.
How long have I been asleep...?
"Isa....bella..." I managed to say.
My head was hurting horribly.
At once, she looked over at me with tears in her eyes.
"Mizik!!!" She shouted as she moved close and tackled me back down.
"Guh..."
"I was so worried about you!"
"Sorry...I didn't mean to scare you... Although you scared me pretty bad, too..." I said weakly.
"I almost drowned, didn't I? You saved my life. Thank you, Mizik," she said with a weak smile.
She was on top of me, now. Pinning me to the ground. Her face was really close to mine.
"You'd have drowned if you weren't smart enough to put your armor away as soon as you hit the water. Good thinking. Now...how long have I been asleep?" I asked.
"About...maybe an hour?" She said as she sat up straight and got off of me.
I slowly got up and stood on my feet.
After that, I helped her up.
"Are you okay? That dragon did some heavy damage to you didn't it?"
"I'm fine now. After I stopped coughing up water, I used Grand Heal a few times to recover. Although, my mp doesn't seem to be regenerating as quickly, here," She said.
"The air feels pretty heavy, doesn't it?" I said.
"It does. Like it isn't charged with magic particles or something. Avernia's atmosphere is full of them but...Mizik, where are we?"
"I don't know. I assumed we were taken to another part of Avernia. A part that hasn't been infected, yet," I said.
"If that's true, then we need to prepare ourselves. The Black Ooze could be here at any moment. Is there a way to get a view from here?" Isabella said.
I looked around quickly and we were at the edge of a forest. The trees here were massive. Each one of them must've been at least forty feet tall.
They were a type that I hadn't seen before.
"I'll climb one of the trees. After that, we can come up with a plan," I said.
"Just be careful..."
I took my time making my way up the tree. Having so much strength and agility made it simple enough. Occasionally, I would use Vengeance in the shape of a dagger to make a handhold.
Once I had gotten high enough, I looked around.
As far as I could see, there were more giant trees. The lake behind me was also pretty large and I could see a mountain in the distance.
Aside from that, nothing much else.
Where the hell are we!?
After that, I jumped down. I hit the dirt with a loud thud. Isabella was startled by this and frowned at me.
"I said be careful! You can't go jumping like that!"
"S-sorry..." I managed.
The fall didn't hurt my legs, but I could understand her worry.
"Did you at least see anything?"
"Nothing. Just more trees and a mountain in the distance."
"Should we climb that and look around?" Isabella asked.
"No. Let's just make camp here tonight. We can talk more about that when we wake up. For now, we should rest."
After that, I started collecting bits of wood to make a fire.
Once that was taken care of, the two of us changed out of our soaking wet clothes and sat down on a nearby rock. Luckily, this area was pretty devoid of people and no one saw us naked.
I elected not to put a shirt on, because it was fairly hot and humid out. And Isabella decided to keep her shirt on.
After we were done, I realized that we didn't have anything to eat.
We kept our food in the refrigerator at home in Geldekairn and didn't store food in our inventories anymore.
Just thinking about it made me sad...
Bronan was the one who invented it, after all...
"Mizik, what are we going to do about food?" Isabella asked worriedly.
"Well, it's dark right now, so we should wait until tomorrow to get something to eat. As long as there are animals here, we can hunt. If not, I'm sure I can find something edible growing nearby..."
"If you say so... I'm counting on you for that. I'll do whatever I can, but I never learned survival skills like you did... I only know things that were taught to me in my studies..."
"Don't worry. Your skills are invaluable to me and they've been a huge help so far. I'll take it from here, Isabella," I said confidently.
She smiled adoringly at me and laid her head down on my lap.
"I'll keep watch. You sleep for now," I said as I stroked her hair.
"We might not know where we are, but at least we have each other."
Isabella slowly drifted off to sleep after that.
As usual, she snored loud enough to wake the dead. While she slept, I decided to look around in my status menu for something of use.
{Caution! Current location unknown! Not in Avernia. Magic particles not detected. Mp may regenerate slower than normal}
Not...Avernia...? That's not possible. Our world is called Avernia.
"Where are we?" I whispered towards no one in particular.
The status menu didn't respond, of course. It had only just warned me that we were supposedly not located in Avernia. On top of that, my suspicions were at least confirmed.
Our bodies would now supply all of our mp because there were no magic particles. That would complicate things if we got into a long battle...
[You have managed to escape the destruction of your world. Good work, wielder. You may yet have Vengeance upon the Source if you keep growing here.]
I heard the voice of Vengeance speaking to me.
Do you know where we are?
[I know you are not in Avernia. This world is different.]
Some use you are... I could have figured that much out on my own!
[Watch your tongue. We are partnered and should strive to get along. We were placed in Avernia long ago for reasons that I cannot say...]
Fine. What would you recommend doing here then?
[Aside from what I want to tell you right now, I have a request. Tell Isabella to stop crying so much when she awakens. Bravery will only tolerate so much of it.]
You bastard. We just lost our home. OUR ENTIRE WORLD! Before that, it was our friends and family! Can you blame her!?
[No. I cannot. And I am not blaming her for being upset. But Bravery requires her to be strong. Bravery is a nuisance to deal with in regards to this particular subject, so I will tell you since it is not currently speaking to her.]
Like you weren't before Arvild almost killed me?
[Exactly. Isabella sustained injuries in that battle because she was afraid. She must be brave if she is to remain as your shield.]
Thanks for the heads up.
[Continue to impress me and I will be ever more cooperative.]
After my conversation with Vengeance, I looked up at the night sky and noted that there were two moons.
Avernia only had one moon.
Additionally, the stars seemed completely out of place... Aside from that, I decided that the best course of action would be to make a camp to live temporarily...
* * *
After a while, Isabella woke up and I slept on her lap just as she had on mine. We kept this up until sunrise.
After morning came, I told her about my conversation with Vengeance.
"I see... I guess I have been a bit of a baby lately."
"I'm sorry. I was just relaying a message..."
"No, it's okay. I needed to hear it. From now on, I'll do my best not to cry so much anymore. I'm going to be strong for you, Mizik!" Isabella said with a smile.
"I'm glad. Thank you for understanding."
After I spoke, Isabella paused for a few minutes and appeared to be deep in thought.
"Bravery thanks you for delivering the message. She also wants me to be more... Umm...forward with you...and not hide my desires from you..."
"What is that damn sword filling your head with...?" I asked.
"I don't know! It's not...sexual... But it's trying to force me to be courageous in everything... Which might also be...you know...physically between us..."
"Just don't let it make you into a pervert. Or better yet, if it does, keep it between us in the bedroom..." I said meekly.
This really wasn't a conversation I was expecting to have...
I was starting to understand why Arvild became such a pervert. Bravery forces the wielder to be completely up front about everything. Nothing held back and stupidly courageous. It made sense that it would also affect someone's innermost desires.
Arvild might not have been such a bad guy, now that I thought about it...
...
Nope. He's still a piece of shit.
"Of course! I wouldn't dream of doing anything with someone other than you!"
"I'm glad to hear that, now let's try to focus..."
I didn't like thinking about these things outside of the bedroom. Although it was bound to come up between a husband and his wife.
Regardless, we had to get to work.
"Right! So what is our plan?"
"I would like to build a small base for us while we're here," I said.
"That sounds like a lot of work, but with our recent knowledge and expertise, it should be simple enough. What do you want to build?" Isabella asked with a smile.
"Well, there's plenty of wood around here. And the trees are pretty massive. We both keep lots of tools and nails in our inventories so...why not a tree house? It'll keep us off of the ground and we don't have to risk flooding so close to the lake."
"That sounds great, but wouldn't that be dangerous to build? Especially without the machines that the dwarves had."
"Of course it'll be dangerous. And yes, it'll also be difficult. We'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way. We can cut down a tree and carve it up, ourselves. In between work, we can rest and I'll hunt for food."
"I don't dislike the idea, but still, it is a lot of work..." Isabella said disappointedly.
"I know... It's a pain in the ass. But if we don't get moving, we might start having other problems. Who knows what sorts of monsters are lurking out here. If there are monsters at all, that is... This isn't Avernia anymore, so we can't be too careful."
"You raise a good point. Let's get started after we get something to eat. I'm starving..."
And with that, we began our first day in this new world.