A few more years after the end of the "Dragon Relocation" mission, as the soldiers called it, the bloody red skies never changed, remaining the same as the time it first showed up, when the world fell into complete chaos. Almost every nation was in a state of anarchy, destroying a large amount of countries, and ending the lives of many people. Now, the situation is a bit steadier but lives continues dropping each second while the end keeps getting closer. Tahgweiy, after the completion of her mission, went to join me and continue our journey with Zeira in another continent where almost all life is gone, with another mission, that is to prevent any chances of the Demons finding out about the Dragon Relocation mission while the Private Sentinel Group and our allies hide the dragons in a safer place.

Their new mission shouldn't take that long, but we'll still be here for a while, since I need to find Tov-Yeua, if she's even here.

I didn't acquire anything new for my arsenal, but my body continued changing. It all started with my meeting with Tov-Yeua, the Catfolk who saved most of the dying Dragonspawns. She was spotted in this continent helping out the survivors of this apocalypse, but it might just be rumors made by the maddened people here.

Zeira flew around searching for anything significant while Tahgweiy spoke to me about our next mission, and whatever is interesting.

Tahgweiy carried many books on her backpack to spread the tale of the great white, along with some of her military gear, including food, water, and most things needed for one to live.

"Have you ever wondered why ants are ants and man are man?"

"What kinda question is that? Ants are creatures made because of some complex science thingy, and humans are the same. What're you tryna say there?"

"Ants are ants because of the existence of man. Without man, you'd consider ants to be of significance in this world, right? They're weaklings, compared to man."

Blah blah blah. We talked for hours on end, arguing over and over about ants and humans. It was a very long and nonsensical conversation, but in the end, she was actually talking metaphorically, while I was thinking realistically. Though, her lesson still didn't actually make sense anyways.

After many days and nights, we stopped to rest at a ruined fortress. It was from the Demons, but it contained nothing useful, besides the shelter it served as. There were volcanoes nearby and geysers were around. Mountains could be viewed well here in the castle, but we had to leave for the adventure. We couldn't stay for long.

Whilst Tahgweiy was walking forwards, a geyser explodes, surprising her. She stepped back, somehow dropping her backpack.

"Yaah-! W-what the heck...!"

We were quite dumbfounded by her ignorance of her surroundings. Not only had she forgotten there were geysers around, but she also got surprised by such a small explosion, even though she could take out an entire army by herself. Come to think of it, she's not really a fighter, but she's still crazy strong. Why is that?

"Careful now. The burning water pains thy flesh, but it is merely a diversion created by the volcanoes, to help us forget about it's destructive nature."

"Hmm... You're right. Wait. No... You're wrong... There're geysers because of volcanic activity... Was all of what you just said a diversion to make us forget about your childishness? Anyways, speaking of volcanoes, one is about to erupt, Blood Panel gave me some info about it, and it seems like the closest volcano here is called the 'Silverfish Volcano.' It erupts every once in a while, and it seems that today is the day..."

"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?!"

We began to hear the area rumbling. Soon after, a thick cloud escaped from one of the nearby volcanoes. It wasn't that far away, and we could get there in just an hour, so obviously, we started running. A volcano has erupted. Quite a bad time to be in this fortress right now.

We managed to flee into a safe place, where we were sure the volcano couldn't reach. Everyone was gasping for air, including me, since the red clouds began to slightly open up from the volcanic eruption, letting in some of the sunlight to weaken me, I'm not sure how that worked, but I am weakened, so it worked.

"Hah... Hah... Hah... Thank god we actually escaped... That volcano was no joke. A rock could've fell on us. It's a miracle we survived! Phew!"

"Quit being dramatic... It wasn't that big of a deal... We just ran because Vixen here was scared of being hit by sunlight..!"

I made an 'X' with my arms and shook my head to let them know I'm saying 'No'. Tahgweiy seems to get it, but Zeira looks confused, like she's seeing something new. It is true that I was a bit uneasy of the sunlight touching me, even though I'm wearing a cloak, but I was more worried about getting caught up in the volcanic eruption, which could possibly destroy this cloak.

"Hah..? What are you trying to say? Zeira doesn't have a clue on what you're doing. Are you perhaps telling me 'Yeah yeah. I was scared. Don't blame me though, I had to save my life in case the one meter of light hit my skin.'?"

"Kakaka! You fairies really are simple-minded creatures huh?! Can't you see that Rireith is denying your claims here!?"

"Why're you defending her, woman? Don't tell me- Gasp..!! Ha-ha-ha..!! Zeira found out your secret! Vixen, listen here! You might not see her the same after this..!"

Suddenly, a blush appeared on Tahgweiy's face. She tried to squabble with Zeira, but with her size and speed, she couldn't catch up to her. I tilted my head in confusion, wondering what they were talking about.

"Wa-wawawa!! Stop it!! Don't say it, little bug! I'll squash you!"

"Haha! Try to catch the almighty Zeira, if you can! Vixen! Listen closely! Tahgweiy, the captain of an entire military unit, is actually a irresponsible fool who left our things back at the geysers!!! She's just trying to deceive you and get you on her side until she says that!"

"You-! ...Wait. What...?"

Uh-oh. Our things?

Wait. Our things!!? Oh no! We gave Tahgweiy most of our things, including foods, drinks, equipments, gears, and everything we needed for this mission! I just realized that she actually doesn't even have her backpack on... Did she really drop it at the geysers..? The volcanic eruption will be a huge problem, and it'll be quite risky for me to retrieve our things properly. Zeira didn't even tell us about it while we were running. How could she!?

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier..?"

"Why didn't you tell us the volcano was erupting today..?"

How childish of her. How long has this fairy even lived? I expected her to be more mature by now, but she's still as smart as a 10 years old kid. Fairies are immortal, aren't they? They're kind of like spirits, they're not actually that physical, and they only die by supernatural ways.

"That's petty... I only forgot to tell you guys about it... Why be so annoying...?"

"It's okay it's okay. I'll go back for it... Zeira won't be able to pick it up, and you can't go out in the sun. So..."

"Great. Don't you feel proud of yourself, Zeira?"

Zeira sat on a tree branch whistling. I picked up a rock and threw it at her, but I missed and it broke the branch instead. She fell into the grass and rolled down into a pond. She emerges from the water and instantly begins yelling at me.

We got into a fight and saw that Tahgweiy wasn't even around anymore.

"Kraaah!!! You angered Zeira, impudent Vixen! You shall feel Zeira's wrath, and welcome your demise, right here and now!!"

"Very well! You were starting to get on my nerves! Now that Tahgweiy's not here anymore, I will take the gratification of dicing you up into blocks of fairy dust, like blocks of sugar!"

I can't see any way of Zeira actually winning here, when she's all drenched up in water, and can't even fly anymore. But when I thought I was winning, the opposite happened. I threw multiple punches at her, but she dodged all of them easily thanks to her size. She couldn't get me because of her lack of strength, so we pretty much ran around until we were too tired to fight anymore. I can't really use serious moves on her, so punches were all I could do.

We laid down on the ground to rest. The both of us were still catching our breath, so, taking this chance, I caught Zeira and held her tightly in my hand.

"Yo... Hehehehe..! Finally caught you now!"

"Gah! Let me go, meanie!!"

"Who's the meanie here? You started all of this!"

Suddenly, we heard something move in the bushes. Tahgweiy appeared with a look that says it all. She didn't have a backpack with her, so it's safe to say all of our stuff were unfortunately destroyed by the volcanic eruption. She was pretty glum, so we stopped our meaningless fighting.

I dropped Zeira on the top of my stomach, where she stayed put. It appears that Zeira has finally understood the situation. It's a major screwup for all of us. I doubt Corporal John or Captain Leon can even help us now. The radios were also inside that backpack after all.

"Boohoo. This is all your fault, Vixen."

"No, it's yours, Zeira."

"Sigh... Let us eat the sleeping dogs, and the resting sheep for the night. You hunt though. I swear I'll do my job as the surveillance drone."

"I sure hope you do."

Afterwards, we searched for anything edible so that we could survive the night. Finding food was easy thanks to Blood Panel's [Automatic Appraisal], making the hunt quicker. Although I don't need to consume anything other than blood, plants and meats are still necessary since they served as snacks, pleasing the mouth, Veno also ate food mainly for that reason too. It seems that Tahgweiy also didn't need to eat anything, since her kind can actually survive on 1 fish for an entire year, but we all had to eat anyways, or else the situation would become awkward.

We survived like this for multiple days, finding carcasses and eating them. Zeira was the only one here who needed to eat the most, so she had quite the comfy life, just following us around and eating 80% of our catch.

One day, whilst walking around the beach, we stumbled upon a strange rock with strange writings carved into it. With [Automatic Appraisal], I read: "GOD ROCK" on the odd rock. It didn't have anything else significant about it, it was just a rectangular rock with words from the Demon language. We thought it would be important later, so we kept it with us.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen the stars in years. That rock just gave me an idea, why don't we open up the gates to heaven and give the stone back to god or something?"

"Brilliant idea! We'll leave the job to you then! Me and Vixen will proceed to rest whilst you do that."

"Sarcasm..? I'm being serious though..."

It is true that we've almost never seen the stars in years, but opening up the clouds just to see them would be too much work. Although I could clear the skies just by throwing an object, I'm worried that I might accidentally hit someone or cause a major disaster.

"Speaking of rocks, you want to be a rockstar, right? Tahgweiy?"

"How does that relate to rocks at all..? But yes, that is true. During the Great Apostasy, I worked with people to form a band mainly for supporting our allies through music. Rock music was one of the most aggressive genres of music during that time, so we prospered as a very huge and successful band!"

"Oh, wow. I didn't know rock was so important to you. Actually, I know of someone who'd be a really good addition to your band."

"Heh. No need to waste your energy, Rireith. My band vanished not too long after our success. Humans just don't live as long as me, you know? Long-living creatures do live most of their lives in pain."

"Sorry to hear that.... But my friend is a rather good guitarist, kukuku..! She's also inhuman, so you two would most likely get along well, and for a very long time, or maybe forever..."

"Eh? An inhuman guitarist?! Very well then! Introduce me to them some time, will ya?! I think I'll be getting back to one of my favorite hobbies soon!"

"Sure sure..."

I say that confidently, but I wonder how I'll get Reyana out here. She's Arisa's soul's guardian, she's not even physical. She- or he, also lived as a human back in Earth, didn't he? That strange man I met when I defeated the Baphomet was most likely her worst enemy, considering they're the leaders of two great opposing nations in Earth's Great War.

Still, I need to get her an electric guitar, but I don't know how to get physical objects into Arisa's soul.

"Hmmm... But first, you'll have to offer her an electric guitar. It's her main instrument. You, her, and Shinpitekina would actually form a really good band, not gonna lie..."

Suddenly, the rock began to glow in one of my pouches. We all stopped in our tracks to take it out and investigate. The writings on the rock was certainly glowing, but we wondered why.

The rock kept glowing until midnight, when it started letting out a strange buzzing noise, preventing us from sleeping. We all awoke to the rock's odd sound, and so we tried to various ways to stop it, even attempting to break it, but we found it was pretty durable compared to the regular rocks.

"Gah..! When will this noise stop!? I can't sleep with this!"

"Ahh..! Zeira's ears are in discomfort, somebody help!"

"Then try to do something about it! Rireith, how about we send it back to god?!"

Back to god..? Is she telling me to throw it into space? Well, considering the rock's hardness, it would certainly survive the heat it'll take once thrown upwards.

"Is this actually a rock sent by god? Or just some random stone that's made for an unknown reason."

"I don't know! Throw it out of here or something!"

"Alright... Fine... I'll miss you, God Rock. I won't forget the moments we had whilst we were still together!"

"Y-you only had that rock for about 5 or 8 hours..! Don't just say that, idiot! What are you? A caveman!?"

Well. I'd be more of a cavewoman, since I'm female, but I guess that's okay too. I was a man back in Earth so...

While moving the same way as that one time I threw Zeira like a baseball, I held the rock tightly before preparing to throw it with all my strength. I hardened all of the blood and muscles in my arms, making my veins pop out like tree roots before sending the "GOD ROCK" through the clouds, clearing out the skies, and letting the rock into outer space.

I watched there until I thought I couldn't see it anymore, and realized I was actually just looking at a star this whole time. Wow. The 'rock' really led us to view the 'stars'.

"Woah... It's quite a beautiful sight. It's really been a long time since I've last seen the stars. I can't believe a rock opened up the path for the stars."

"Talk about rockstars! A rockstar actually saw the stars thanks to a rock being thrown towards it!"

I wonder what that "GOD ROCK" was actually about though. It must've been made by dwarves, since they're the types of people who'd make random, but interesting junk and then throw it away since it's not interesting enough, so if it actually was, then they should be around here somewhere. But we also found the rock on a beach, so it was probably just washed ashore.

We never found out why or how the rock glowed or made that strange sound after that night. All we know was that that rock was rectangular, and had the words: "GOD ROCK" written on it.