The winged man, who’d called himself a Zypher, chuckled lightly.

“You’re a weird one. You must not be from here. The Messenger has to translate the language you speak. That means you don’t speak Common. It’s rare to find someone who cannot speak Common at your age,” The Zephyr concluded quickly, his eyes still trained on Xavier.

It looked like he was waiting for Xavier to falter under the pressure of his gaze, but Xavier maintained eye contact with him. Only now did Xavier realize that the Zypher wasn’t speaking his language. The winged man spoke in another language – a language he’d never heard before, yet Xavier understood everything he said.

“You can call me Chiroph. I’m a Zypher from the Dark Wings Clan. I found you unconscious in the Xaer plains, but it looks like you know about that place, given the look on your face. Do you know who you are and how you ended up here?”

Xavier pressed his lips together and tried hard to recall the last events.

“My name is Xavier Vador,” He introduced himself slowly. “And the last thing I remember is falling through a Monster Gate.”

Xavier suddenly shot forward, taking Chiroph by surprise, “I need to get back! Where are those Xaer plains? Do you know the Monster Gate I’m talking about?”

Chiroph looked at Xavier for a long time, a crease appearing on his forehead.

“Are you talking about the Aether Gates? There are no Aether Gates nearby. The closest is in Polin, but that’s a day away if you go there on foot.”

Aether Gates? Is that what they call the Monster Gates? Whatever, that’s not important right now! The nearest gate is way too far.

“You found me…where again? How far is that from this place… Where am I, to begin with?” A headache began to creep up the back of his head due to all the questions his mind came up with. It was bad. He worried about his family and couldn’t sit idle, knowing that monsters and threats lurked around Haven. He could not suppress the panic that rose in his chest much longer.

Falling through the Monster, aka Aether Gate, would have been fine if he could go back now that he regained consciousness, but if the Gate leading back to Earth didn’t exist anymore…what was he supposed to do?

Back to Earth? That sounds like I’ve crashed into another world…Isn’t that exactly what I ended up doing? Like seriously. Where the hell am I?

“I found you in the Xaer plains. You were badly hurt and unconscious. It’s rare for outsiders to get this far into the Xaer plains. You made it pretty far. If you’d walked only a few more kilometers north, you would have reached Ixton. That’s the name of this town, for the record. The Grand Forest is not far from here. Maybe a temporary Aether Gate opened there, and you emerged from it? But if that was the case, I still don’t understand how you managed to walk that far away from the Grand Forest in your condition.”

Chiroph pointed at his chest and Xavier looked down. His wounds tore open again after jumping up from the bed, and his bandages were now soaked in warm blood.

“Thanks for tending to my wounds and for letting me rest in your house,” Xavier murmured, using some of the Healing Energy from his energy pool.

He froze in his tracks as the wound on his chest healed, realizing only now that something was odd.

Healing Energy accumulates over time. It’s usually not that much.

“How long was I unconscious?” Xavier blurted out, his eyes narrowed to slits.

“I didn’t expect you to be a Healer. That is a great surprise. You look like a fighter,” Chiroph exclaimed as Xavier removed his blood-drenched bandages. The dagger wound – Luka’s last gift – healed as they spoke.

“You were unconscious for almost a week. Darkness oozed out of you sometimes, but I thought that was related to your natural regeneration. Some Gods grant their Champions Blessings with weird perks. From the looks of it, I must have been mistaken.”

Xavier only blinked at that line while processing whatever the Zypher had just said.

First, Chiroph mentioned Gods as if it was possible to talk to them. They seemed like people one could talk to, not divine beings beyond the reach of mortals. That didn’t make sense, but it got even weirder.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Chirpoh also used the terms ‘Champions’ and ‘Blessings’, but Xavier didn’t understand a thing. What was going on?

He doesn’t have a Card Deck, either. Just like the Lesser Succubi.

Xavier swallowed hard.

“I am not a Healer, but I have a Healing-type Card,” Xavier answered honestly, trying to read Chiroph’s response and the change in his expression.

However, Chiroph merely frowned.

“Cards? I’m not sure I can follow you.”

As expected. Xavier had to try his best to hide his frown. He ended up squinting his nose before pointing at his bronzish Card Deck.

“Is it rare to have Card Decks? What about those Champions? None of them use Cards?” Xavier asked before he thought of something else that also bothered him, “The Messenger might reward them with Cards and Soul Essences when they slay fierce monsters.”

Xavier always thought that the notifications felt like a ‘Messenger’. He was unsure why he thought Messenger was the proper term because nobody else in Haven felt like him. However, now that he had heard Chiroph use the term earlier, Xavier knew that he had been correct, even if it didn’t explain why he always knew it was correct.

“I don’t know much about Champions, but I do know that the Messenger doesn’t reward Champions. The Gods reward their brave warriors. The Messenger supports everyone else fairly. It rewards us by offering us useful Traits, Ancient Powers, Soul Essences, and a Class Path to help us fill the gaps in our lackluster Fate,” Chiroph explained with a faint smile on his lips.

Xavier felt sudden chills appear all over his body. Chiroph sounded like a fanatic, but the weirdest fact was that his words made sense somehow.

So, Champions are the warriors of Gods. They receive rewards by working for their Gods. But what are Gods? Is Chiroph talking about actual Gods? It feels wrong to consider Earth’s terminology for ‘God’ as the correct interpretation for the Gods Chiroph mentions. Or are they like that? That’s way too much for me. Why do I even care about those Gods? I need to get back home!

It was good to know that the Messenger was similar to the one back on Earth. Ancient Powers and Traits were probably comparable to Cards, whereas Soul Essences and Class Paths were something he was already familiar with. That was good. At least, there was some common point between this place and Earth.

“How calming,” Xavier ridiculed himself quietly.

He shook his head and tried to get back to his senses. All of this was too much for his poor heart and brain to process.

I wish I wasn’t alone here.

Xavier thought with a forlorn expression. He was already dying to return home. Anything could have gone wrong in a week. And as if on cue, his companions made their presence known.

Glut chirped loudly and Umbra meowed in an attempt to tell him that he was not alone. He could also sense their need to step out of the Soul World but it would be foolish to let them out in an unknown place. He had no idea if Chiroph was trustworthy enough plus he also was clueless about the dangers in his current surroundings.

He had been so lost in his thoughts that he somehow forgot about them. But it was good to know that he was not alone.

Hang in there, guys. I will let you out soon.

“Okay. I know that this place is called Ixton and that we must be somewhere in the Xaer Plains. The Grand Forest is nearby, and Aether Gates seem to manifest there occasionally… But that still doesn’t tell me where I am. I don’t mean the Xaer Plains or the country with that. What’s the name of this planet?” Xavier interrogated Chiroph, whose smile cracked.

“Planet? You…” His eyes narrowed to a slit, “You are in the Domain of the God of Nature. The Domain is shared and directly connected with the Gods of the Endless Cycle, the Godly Council of War, and the G–....”

“Wait, wait, wait… What the fuck?” Xavier interrupted Chiroph, who stopped talking to inspect Xavier for a while.

Time passed eerily slowly as Chirop stared at him. Numerous thoughts flashed through Xavier’s mind, but he couldn’t vocalize them. Something held him back from saying anything.

“You are not from the Domains, right?” Chiroph pointed out.

Xavier’s lips parted to answer. He was a little bit confused about what Domains were and wondered if Earth was part of some sort of Domain now that the Messenger was connected to it, but he shook his head. Xavier knew the answer. He knew that Earth wasn’t part of any Domain.

“No. I’m not from one of the Domains. My home planet is connected to a Branch of the Origin.”

Chiroph nodded slowly, his eyes trained on Xavier.

“So that’s how it is. That makes sense.”

Does it? Xavier wanted to ask, but he knew better. He had no idea how it happened, but the answers to some questions came to him as if he’d always known them.

Xavier didn’t even have to ask the questions aloud when the answer surfaced in his mind.

What is going on with me?!