As he touched the canvas flap of his tent, Aaron was surprised by how smooth it felt. He stood there, frozen, his heart pounding in his chest and his stomach feeling like a bag of rocks. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and pulled the flap back, letting in a flood of sunlight. When his eyes adjusted, he saw that he was in the middle of a clearing that was the size of a city block. The ground was bare dirt, and the clearing was surrounded by walls of onyx with ramparts on top. The walls glistened in the sun.

As Aaron turned around, he saw that the entire wall was a circle, with his tent in the center. The ramparts were manned by armored humanoids who were much larger than normal humans. He realized that they were "much, much larger."

Feeling overwhelmed and disoriented, Aaron stumbled back to his tent, but it had disappeared into golden light, leaving no trace behind. He heard footsteps and turned to see a nine-foot-tall woman dressed in all white striding towards him. Her ruby eyes seemed to bore into him, and Aaron had never felt such an intense, inquisitive gaze.

The woman spoke in a voice that was as imposing as her stature, saying something that Aaron couldn't understand. He thought to himself, "What is she saying? Where am I?" He had a brief vision of falling through endless blackness and felt nausea and vertigo wash over him as his knees buckled. He managed to croak out, "Who are you? Where is this?"

The giant woman raised an eyebrow and pulled out a glass pane the size of a book from her cloak. Aaron's horror increased as he realized that she had a cloak. He had a vision of a green planet and a black maw swallowing him up as he fell. The woman spoke in a perfect imitation of his own voice, asking, "Who are you? Where is this?" The glass pane lit up, and then everything went black. The woman sighed and said, "Tch."

Suddenly, a loud roar came from above, shouting, "YURII!" Aaron looked up to see a lion-man falling towards them, decelerating faster than seemed physically possible. The anthropomorphic lion took a fighting stance, and Aaron realized that he was expecting combat. It hit him that he was not on Earth.

Yuri Andross was not a person who acted without thinking or was indecisive, but the excitement of potentially facing a threat to civilization overwhelmed her usual calm demeanor. Could this be an agent of fate, a legendary Voyager? Yuri had heard stories about the last Voyager, known only as ABSOLUTE, who was defeated by the deity Adrastea herself. The thought of facing such a formidable opponent filled Yuri with bloodlust. However, as she looked at the alien, she felt nothing. There was no sense of danger, no fear emanating from him. In fact, the aura of the supposed predator felt weak and insignificant. The kid was barely able to stand.

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Yuri thought to herself, "What a disappointment. The idiot gods that summoned him must have finally let the rot go to their head. They screwed up." Rex, the lion-man, dropped down beside her, ready to tear the alien to pieces. The kid slowly raised his hands, showing no signs of using grand spells or summoning forbidden energies. There wasn't even a breeze caused by his power. Even Rex seemed confused. It was clear that this was an ordinary human. Yuri knew that the AUM, the empire's children, would be able to beat him easily.

"He's small," Rex said.

Yuri dryly commented, "Brilliant observation, Rex."

Rex asked, "What do we do?"

Yuri replied, "Put on the biggest Leech-lock we have. The chronicle hasn't encountered his language before, so we'll have the Scribes communicate with him and see what he knows."

The Xeral barked, "What level of containment?"

Yuri answered, "Me," and sent electricity pulsing from her fingers, causing Aaron to convulse and fall to the ground.

For the second time that day, Aaron woke up feeling terrible. This time, he was strapped to a metal chair and wearing something that seemed like a straight jacket. He groaned, "Fucccccckkkkk." Across from him sat a man dressed in a black Chinese-style cheongsam, wearing Lennon spectacles and with slick-backed hair and an intelligent glimmer in his eyes. The man was holding the same glass pane that the tall woman had held earlier, and he was also large.

The man pointed at himself and said, "ARJUN." He then pointed at Aaron and said, "Aaron." Arjun spoke slowly and smiled. He pointed to various objects in the room, which looked like a field hospital, and named them quickly. Aaron struggled to stay awake and focused, feeling exhausted and in pain. His attention was flagging and his head began to loll.

Arjun stood up, held Aaron's chin, and slipped a square paper strip into his mouth. Aaron suddenly felt a surge of energy, feeling free from pain and fatigue for the first time since arriving in this unfamiliar place. With a big smile mirroring Arjun's, Aaron opened his mouth to speak when a ground-shaking explosion shook the tent, wiping the smiles off both their faces.