"So, do you feel like helping at all?" Stoney asked.

Marten glanced down at Stoney, raising an eyebrow at the question.

"Helping with what?" Marten asked.

"Don't pretend like you weren't listening in," Stoney said.

"Who says I'm pretending?" Marten replied, turning his attention back away from Stoney, choosing to stare off into the distance instead. "Of course I was. That's why I'm asking."

"The world might end, you know," Stoney said. He leant back against the wall of the house and followed Marten's gaze with his own. Though he had first assumed that Marten was looking in the direction that Sera had ran towards during her search for Jamie, he had a suspicion that he was just staring blankly into space.

"The world's been ending for a while now, it seems like," Marten replied.

"And you don't think you should be doing something about that?" Stoney asked.

"Do you?" Marten asked back, with an eyebrow raised. "I don't see you rushing off into the woods."

Stoney frowned and shook his head, not to deny Marten's accusation, but just because. If he was doing it for any reason, whatever that reason may have been, it didn't end up working.

Stoney sighed. "It's a strange feeling isn't it, to have your instinct shouting at you that everything will be fine despite you knowing that it may not be."

"I'm a gambler," Marten said. "I live by that feeling. I always follow my gut, no matter what my head says."

"And what good has that done for you?" Stoney asked.

Marten looked down at Stoney, giving him an annoyed glare before turning his eyes away once again.

"What can I say? I'm a slave to my intuition," he grumbled.

Stoney grimaced as he looked down at his legs, as if staring would get them to move. When they didn't, he sighed and grimaced.

"It seems that applies to me as well," Stoney said. "At least for the time being."

"Don't like the feeling?" Marten asked.

Stoney's mouth flattened into a thin line. "I trust in my intuition as much as I do the Founder at the moment, and unfortunately, that means I have absolute faith in it."

Marten made a noncommittal hum.

"I just wish I could do something. Anything," Stoney grumbled. "Even though I'm certain that the Founder has our best interests at heart, I can't help but feel a bit frustrated, knowing I'm just sitting here with my thumb up my ass. At least Sera is trying."

"Why bother?" Marten asked. "Even if there was something that the Founder couldn't protect us from, which there isn't, it's not like we could do anything about it. At this point, the only person who can do affect the world in any way is one who can mold it to their will."

"Like Jamie."

"Like the brat," Marten agreed. "And any other godlike figures that the universe wants to dump on this fucking shithole of a world. Best thing us mortals can do now is just pray."

"Never took you for a religious man."

"I'm not."

---

When I grabbed Jamie's hand, there was a short silence between us, far too short for me to even consider taking a moment to catch my breath. As soon as I grabbed his hand, he grabbed me back in a tight, but gentle grip. I felt my eyes drawn to his, and couldn't help but be surprised by how determined he looked.

"I know things are confusing right now," Jamie said, his voice steady and confident, as if I had imagined the fear that permeated his voice just seconds ago. "I can fix your world, but I think I need to do it fast."

"What are you talking about, Jamie?" I asked.

"I don't have the time to explain," he said, shaking his head, before the resolute expression on his face slowly started to slip into one of uncertainty. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," I said, surprised by how easily I said it.

Jamie's eyes softened instantly, but he shook his head again, as if trying to physically dissipate any uncertainties he might have resting there. It seemed to work, as his determined expression returned, stronger than ever.

"Okay," he said, before he closed his eyes. "Detect Whatever is Making this World so Messed Up and Messing with People's Memories."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

It took me a second to realize what he was doing. Though I thought I had gotten used to his weird Otherworlder powers by this point, it seemed like I could still be surprised.

"Was that seriously a spell you just cast?" I asked, not sure of which answer I wanted to hear from him.

Jamie opened one eye and chuckled. "I know, right? I told you. I'm ridiculously broken."

"Right," I said. "So that stupid spell actually worked?"

"Yup," he replied, with a grin. "It's called plot convenience. As an isekai protagonist, it's my divine right to have all the solutions to any of my problems to simply be handed to me, just as long as I remember to ask."

"I understood half of what you just said," I replied, with a smile of my own. "Remind me to ask you to explain it to me later."

Jamie responded with a smile.

"Why don't I just show you?" he asked. "Teleport."

I had to blink several times as I was blinded by a sudden light.

At first I assumed that whatever magic Jamie had used was the source of the light, but when the light refused to fade, it took me a long time for my eyes to adjust to it. After a few seconds, I finally managed to glimpse at my surroundings through squinted eyes.

When I saw where we were, my eyes widened and my mouth hung open involuntarily. Though the sunlight was harsh enough that it stung me to keep them open all the way, I couldn't help but look around in awe of my surroundings.

It wasn't just beautiful. It was beauty defined. I stood atop a hill, overlooking a great expanse of land coated in colourful flora that made me think at first, that I was somewhere high above the clouds, looking down on a rainbow. Fruits I didn't recognize, hanging from trees and vines with leaves and flowers in vibrant colours and a lustre that I'd never seen before. A long river splitting the land before me, the pure water sparkling and catching the light as if precious gems and metals were hiding just beneath the surface. Unlike the dreary rain that we had left behind, the sun was warm enough that I could already feel my soaked clothes drying out, though a comfortable breeze and the shade of the large tree behind me refused to make the heat unbearable.

The place was oddly perfect. Every branch, every leaf, every strand of grass seemed like it was supposed to be there, as if it had been intentionally designed. It was difficult to imagine that wasn't the case, even if the forest was large enough that it expanded far beyond the horizon.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"I have no idea," Jamie said. "All I know is that the source of your world's problems is here."

I looked around briefly but didn't notice anything that could possibly look like something that would be capable of disfiguring reality, but when I glanced back at Jamie, the determined expression that he had on his face made it clear that he was being completely serious.

"Are you sure?" I asked, despite everything I knew about him and his powers.

Jamie looked around and grimaced. I followed his gaze downwards, but didn't immediately notice anything off about the hill we were standing on.

"Yeah," he said. "Pretty sure."

It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about. Despite the comforting atmosphere that this place created, I felt a shiver down my spine as I suddenly noticed how quiet the air was, devoid of the cry of insects and birds that would've otherwise been thriving on a sunny day like this. And in this perfect garden, I suddenly grew more aware of the hill we were standing on, the only bump in the perfectly flat land that stretched over the horizon.

Around the base of the hill was the outline of a perfect circle where the dense plant life refused to go beyond, bowing reverently towards the hill, but not intruding on its borders. I suddenly felt like an intruder in this space, where nothing existed other than the lush grass that coated it and the single tree that we were standing under. I looked up and saw, hanging from the branches, fruits that I couldn't recognize, not because I hadn't ever seen them before, but because I couldn't understand what I was looking at.

"The fruits?" I asked, surprised that my voice was as steady as it was.

Jamie glanced towards it, but didn't seem to care about the fruits nearly as much as I did. He directed his gaze downwards instead.

"No, not those," he said. "It's under the hill."

I tore my eyes away from the fruits, stepping gingerly away as if that would do anything to protect me.

"Oh," I said.

If Jamie had anything to say about how dumbfounded I sounded, he kept it to himself. He simply closed his eyes and raised his arms, pointing his palms to the earth.

"Hellfire blast."

The casual way that he said it gave me an inadequate amount of forewarning for how intense the following spell would be. A pillar of pure energy erupted from Jamie's palms. Though he had called it hellfire, it was nothing like any flame I had ever seen before. Given that it was colourless, silent, and devoid of heat and light, I could only assume that if I actually experienced the effects of the spell with any of my senses, I would have died instantly.

Jamie closed his hands, stopping the flow of mana and revealing a medium-sized hole where he had summoned his hellfire, the spell simply erasing the earth from existence rather than burning it up. Jamie stared down at the hole, breathing slightly heavy from the exertion of his magic, and almost stumbling backwards.

Without thinking, I rushed up to him, but he managed to catch himself before he fell to the floor. I decided to support him anyways, just in case, grabbing his arm with my body.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Jamie smiled at me, looking more tired than I'd ever seen him before. "Yeah," he said. "It was a little anticlimactic, I guess. But I did it. I saved the world."

I tried to smile back at him, but for some reason, I couldn't do it.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked. "That looked like it took a lot out of you."

Jamie's smile grew wider and he let out a small chuckle under his breath. "It was pretty difficult yeah," he said, panting slightly to catch his breath. "Had to output enough power to destroy whatever the threat was, but had to hold myself back enough so I didn't accidentally destroy your world myself. Took a surprising amount of control"

I didn't find myself laughing with him, but before I could think of what to say in response, the sudden look of confusion in Jamie's eyes stopped me. For a moment, I thought he was staring at me, but when I noticed he was staring past me, I turned around.

PVP is prohibited. Otherworlders may not harm other Otherworlders.

I don't know how long I stared at that panel for, but at some point, I found my eyes drifting towards the hole that Jamie had created.

It was impossibly dark all the way down, and I don't know if I imagined a presence slowly rising from deep within it.

But I know I didn't imagine the soft, gentle voice that echoed from deep within.

"Who disturbs me?"