From the heights of being thrown to the air, I could get a better look at the place that we walked into. The sky appeared to be open at first, but after focusing my sights on it, I realized that it was nothing more than an illusion, as some of the clouds looked completely flat.

For the surroundings, this whole place looked like a lush forest that spread to a seemingly unending horizon, but like the sky, I noticed that at a certain point, the trees from one side didn’t match the ones that were directly next to them, as if there was a wall dividing them and giving them a different appearance.

Finally, the mountain that had the veil we used to get here, it seemed to reach to the sky, but even then, there was a strange bend when they both touched, mixing with the sky to give it the appearance as if there was more beyond it, while at the same time, causing things to look flat.

This whole place was closed off, just like the previous zone, and the one before it. However, the details were such that a normal mortal wouldn’t be able to notice them until they reached the very edge or spent some time looking at it.

Just like Eleanor, who didn’t seem to be paying any attention to any of those details as she screamed while trying her best to balance herself in the air. I could see the tears streaming down the side of her face as the fear of falling to her death filled her, but she was likely to survive. It wasn’t that high to begin with, and her body had been strengthened significantly from absorbing the power of the defeated monsters.

The flying eventually ended, and she crashed with several tree branches on her way down, gasping, and yelping every time she hit one, until finally hitting the floor with an oomph and grass flying everywhere.

I followed right behind her, but with this body nimbleness, I was able to easily slow my fall by jumping from the end of one branch to the other until I also landed next to her.

She remained face down and immobile for a moment. I approached her with curiosity and tapped her on the shoulder a couple of times to make sure that she was still alive, which is when she lifted her face with a grumbling voice. Eleanor’s face was full of grass and dirt, but she was unharmed, as expected.

“W-what was that…?” she asked, cleaning her face and lifting her body up to sit with her back against a tree. “Was there somewhere in the Duke’s territory that had chickens like that?”

No, but she would eventually figure that out. For now, it was best for her to get her bearings and learn more about this place, so I just turned to look deeper into the forest.

Eleanor followed my gesture and turned to look around. There was a worried look in her eyes as the joy that she carried from believing to be free was replaced by the caution of meeting something like those chickens or worse. She took to walking once more with careful steps, stopping by the tree closer to the one we were, leaning to the side of it to look beyond it, and then continuing to walk.

She repeated the same thing several times, moving through the forest at a much slower pace as she worried about any other enemy that could do the same to her again. That was until the sound of fighting was heard echoing in the distance. She snapped her face to look in that direction and strained her eyes to try to find if there was something going on, but the thick forest wouldn’t allow her to see anything.

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Eleanor glanced at me for a moment, but I just looked in that direction, so she followed my gaze and started carefully walking that way. As we were getting closer, the sounds of weapons hitting each other got louder and louder to the point where, after passing next to a tree, we finally saw the ones responsible.

It was an elf in a knight’s silver armor in a clearing in the middle of the forest, wounded and trying his best to fight back a small demon who kept assaulting him with a pair of daggers. This particular kind of demon was also known as a goblin due to their green skin, short stature, big black eyes, long noses, and wide mouths full of sharp teeth.

The elf was taller than Eleanor by about a head from what I could tell, had pale skin, long blonde hair, green eyes, and a pair of long ears at the side of his head. He was full of cuts, dirt, and pieces of his armor were falling down. In contrast, the goblin appeared to not be having an issue pushing him down as his movements were nimble, swift, and precise.

In one desperate attack, the elf created a large fireball, aimed it at the goblin, and shot it all in less than one breath. A large explosion shook the trees around us and lifted fire and dirt high into the air. Eleanor covered herself from the shockwave, but quickly turned to look back at the fight with widened eyes.

The elf was heaving, the sword in his hand pointed in the direction of the disappearing explosion. However, he didn’t have time to rest, as from it, the goblin flew out like an arrow, with the daggers at his side and ready to cut down the elf. In response, he desperately lifted his sword, and the weapons clashed with each other.

The pressure from the goblin was amazing, and what’s more… As I gazed beyond the fight, into the woods opposite from us, I could see another figure watching the fight. It was much taller and wider than a normal humanoid, its face was covered, and like us, it appeared to just be watching. This was likely another demon, looking after the fighting goblin.

At a certain point, the power of the goblin was overwhelming for the elf, and in one wide swing, the elf was sent flying backwards and closer to where we were, landing a short distance away from us and dragging on the ground until he stopped just a few steps away from Eleanor.

“S-sir Knight!” she exclaimed, and the elf looked up to her with surprise.

“W-who—!?” was all he let out, before snapping his face to look at the incoming goblin and then back at Eleanor. “If you’ve managed to get here, then you’re strong enough to fight. Please, help me!”

“E-eh?! But I—”

“No time!” the elf exclaimed, quickly standing back up and slashing the blade at the goblin. “Quickly!”

Eleanor hesitated for only a moment, after which she pulled out the sword and stepped forward with uncertain steps.

“Hm?” The goblin reacted to her presence with a high-pitched hum, tilting its head to the side to look at her.

Being looked at like that caused Eleanor to hesitate even more, but it also gave the elf an opening to attack the goblin by swinging his sword. The goblin’s attention turned back to the blade, but since he wasn’t ready for it, he suffered the same fate as the elf did before and was sent flying to the other side and closer to the other figure.

The goblin didn’t stay down for long as with a short hop he got back to his feet; however, he didn’t act as he simply looked this way, then back at the large figure, and finally again to this place. He shook his head, put away his daggers at the side, and then jumped back into the forest, where his figure quickly disappeared along with the large one.

The elf looked with caution at the place where they went and once he made sure that they were gone, he sighed and put his sword away as well, before turning to look at Eleanor with a smile. “Thank you so much, my lady. It seems like your presence was enough to drive them away.”

“I-I um… I didn’t do anything…” she said with a wry smile. “But what was that? Why are there demons in this place? Isn’t this Duke Wither’s territory? I was certain that it didn’t have those kinds of beings here.”

“Duke Wither’s?” the elf asked back, confusion in his face as he tilted his head. “I don’t know that place.”

“Eh?” Eleanor surprisedly exclaimed, after which there was a moment of quiet, before the elf realized what happened.

“Ah, I think I understand…” the elf said with a regretful smile. “This is… well… This is still a Void Dungeon.”

Hearing that, Eleanor froze in place.