Klein inwardly sighed.
'Why do they have to kill each other?'
The conflict he had just briefly witnessed from afar was in some sense bound to happen. He had recognized the attitudes of the mercenaries towards the aliens and knew that it would eventually end up as it did.
In any case, none of it really concerned him. What did grab his attention was...
'Stick-weapon'
It was out of the way, and his remaining mana would not sustain the number of times more he would have to use blink to get there and back, so he reluctantly pulled his gaze away.
In any case, he was unsure if there would be much more ammunition in the weapon.
The family of four had just settled in their car hurriedly, and Harold had already begun to drive.
Klein blinked on top of the roof, knocking on it.
Thump. Thump.
"Chop chop" He smiled as he found a comfortable sitting position on the metal.
Vrrr...
The car gained speed and did its best to traverse the fields. There were no set roads in the area, and they simply drove in the direction they knew.
They had kept an eye on their sense of direction by the direction of the road they were traveling in the day prior.
They had already confirmed that their compasses no longer worked, and GPS was useless.
Thankfully they still had a map, so they had compared north with the direction of the road to orient themselves.
Granted, that sense of orientation wouldn't last long the further they were made to travel, but it was the best they could do for now.
The night breeze played with Klein's amber hair. He enjoyed the sensation of speed, even though the bumpiness of the drive was less than ideal.
A duet of crimson and blue danced in the night, their lights playing off of the darkness in the swaying fields.
With each passing moment, the town was being left further in the distance.
Klein cast 'sight' to prepare for any other strange otherworldly occurrences, and at the furthest reaches of his vision, he descried a faint line in the sky.
He wasn't sure if that was there the night prior or not - he had other things to confront at that time.
Even infusing more mana into the 'sight' spell, he couldn't make out precisely what it was - only catching a faint sight of it because the lights and line of sight were just right.
'Eh, whatever' Klein dismissed it casually. If it was something interesting, he would find out about it eventually, but for now, the imminent situation was more important.
The nights... They were definitely strange.
They certainly had never been that way before, and judging by the fright and unfamiliarity on the faces of the couple, he knew that the aliens felt the same way.
From Nystagmus to Million-eyed Nystagmus to Wraiths to the twin moons...
Klein's heart thumped, his excitement threatening to burst from his chest.
His smile widened, and when the moonlight passed through his face, his eyes reflected mad desire.
Whoosh.
He quickly calmed himself, the smile never leaving his face.
He closed his eyes and began to recover his mana.
If he wanted to survive and take in all the changes of the world in earnest, he had to get stronger.
Luckily, he had found one such path to do so in [Petra's Soulspells]. Although not ideal for the long-term, from what he learned of the technique, he could increase his mana recovery rate to an absurd limit.
'One second seems to be the theoretical limit to recover all of my mana as a third circle mage...' The thought was tempting.
If he managed to accomplish that, then he would be able to battle unhindered indefinitely.
And another path worth exploring was what aliens termed 'Precise Engineering'. Klein also hoped that there might even be a whole lot more he could learn.
Exhale...
Ten minutes passed, and the car had found a narrow dirt trail to follow. Though not ideal, it was more comfortable to drive on than the fields.
Moments passed.
Klein's eyes shot open.
'The winds changed...' Klein observed. As a sensitive combat mage, he was highly attuned to his environment at all times.
He once again cast 'sight'.
Not far in front of him, he made out a peculiar scene.
A sea of crimson.
Flotsam floated gently on the surface, guided by the winds.
Somewhere not far from that wreckage, a half-sunk monument was lit by the twin moonlights reflecting in the waters. Half a face cast in stone stretched out an open palm to the sky.
Upon the palm, the form of an ancient, broken knight armor knelt. The tip of its sword dug into the stone.
From its dark visor, Klein made out the brief flickering of two piercing red lights.
Klein was so taken in by the otherworldly scene, he had almost forgotten to halt the car's drive.
Knock. Knock.
He tapped the car's roof and stood.
"Stop here" He cast [Soul Link], a trace of bewilderment and awe making it through his voice.
The car stopped, and Harold rolled the window down.
"What's wrong?" He asked, looking around him. The night had gotten thicker, and they felt completely isolated from the world at that moment.
Like there was nothing else in the world besides the five of them.
"It's a dead end here..." Klein began to say, "If you want, you can take another direction, but I..."
His smile widened as his heart urged him to witness that spectacular scene up close. The armor seemed to be alive, and it would definitely be a stupid thing to go and confront it directly.
Even so...
"I want to go ahead"
Harold hesitated for a moment. He looked toward his wife who was equally unsure.
"What's there?" Harold asked.
Klein turned to them, his fingertips trembling slightly in anticipation.
He reigned in his enthusiasm, and said with levity, "A nightmare".
"I think... We'll just stay here..." Harold spoke after thinking about it. They weren't sure what to do. They were lost in the middle of nowhere in a different world than what they knew.
And the presence of the young wizard was their only sense of security.
"Okay. Ah, it should be fine by daylight, probably..." Klein smiled and blinked away after saying his piece.
He disappeared from their sight and reappeared not too far away from the scene he saw.
He still couldn't see the crimson sea with his normal vision, but he decided to wait for his mana to fully recover before exploring it.
So he sat in the middle of the dirt road, closed his eyes with a smile, and adjusted his breathing.