Ryzen slowly rose out of bed, trying his best not to wake Enancia, who was still fast asleep. However, he didn’t remember when they must have fallen asleep at some point while cuddling.

He could tell from the single window in the room that it was pitch dark outside. He wasn’t sure what the exact time was but he figured it was likely early in the morning.

He quietly walked out of the building to ensure he didn’t wake anyone and took a moment to enjoy the night sky.

There were countless stars in the sky, some brighter and grander than others. A glistening moon perfectly complimented the varying stars, blending the scenery together. A second moon stood out from the other, although not as big.

Various naturistic sounds accompanied the scene, only adding to its beauty. Ryzen knew that his family would have loved this view. They had always enjoyed the outdoors and often dragged Ryzen along on their camping trips. Looking back on it, he always had a good time, even if he didn’t show it.

His father always had an entertaining story to tell. His mother would be right there, waiting to scold him for his unrulyness. His sister would sit there and laugh along. He would also watch and he always enjoyed the show. The dynamic of it all. There wasn’t a moment that he didn’t enjoy with his family.

Ryzen would ensure that he would make it back to them. He would ensure that his family, who likely thought he was dead by now, would enjoy such moments with him again.

Yet, his life had taken a complicated turn with Enancia. He had never expected he would become so attached to her. Now, he wasn’t sure what he would do. What if he wasn’t able to bring her back with him? Better yet, what if he did? He was sure that someone dangerous on earth would take an interest in her unique composition.

Ryzen groaned as he thought of the problems currently surrounding his life. He didn’t want to let anyone he cared about suffer.

A small rustle alerted Ryzen to a pair of bright red dots in the distance. He warily looked at them for a few seconds before dozens more started to pop up all around him. It was at this point that Ryzen knew something was wrong.

As soon as this thought crossed his mind, dozens of small little green men came dashing out of the bushes and charged onto the houses. Ryzen immediately recognized them as goblins. A few of them immediately saw Ryzen and dashed towards him.

Ryzen instinctively dropped into his shadow, shocking the oncoming goblins. They warily looked around before dropping dead with a dagger sticking out of their heads.

Ryzen’s next move was to check on Enancia and ensure her safety. If this world’s goblins were anything like his then he was definitely worried about her.

He crashed into the house and Enancia was still barely waking up.

“Ryzen, what’s going on?” she asked sleepily.

“No time,” he said with a shake of his head.

He immediately grabbed her and went into his shadow, fully waking her up.

She gave Ryzen a worried look and made a questioning face. To show her, he moved back outside in his shadow. By now, the goblins were rampaging all over the town, and many of its citizens were awake. They were frantically scrambling around, clearly powerless against them. Ryzen wondered how they managed to live as long as they did like this.

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His answer soon came as a plethora of people rushed out of the village’s center building. Except it soon became apparent that they weren’t people but vampires.

Each one of them wielded a different blood-red weapon that was clearly a result of some skill they were using. Ryzen had noticed that many of the vampire’s skills relied on blood in some way.

Out of the entire group of vampires, there was one that stood out from all the rest. There was a man with a large claymore that wiped out tens of goblins with a single swing. He smashed through them like butter. None of them were able to stand in his path.

The others were pretty strong in their own right but it was clear that he was the leader. A few moments later, another wave of goblins came but this time there was a large goblin among them. It looked to be like some sort of boss goblin that was controlling the other ones.

This time, Ryzen was tired of sitting back and watching. He started to send shadow daggers at various different goblins, killing them on the spot. The vampires jumped back as they realized this but slightly relaxed as they realized the daggers were only targeting the goblins.

They continued to fight the goblins and eventually, came face to face with the large one. Ryzen sent two shadow daggers at it but it easily deflected them having seen so many of its brethren be killed by them.

Still, Ryzen was not done yet. He left Enancia in a safe place and appeared behind the goblin. He moved to stab it in the back but the goblin skin went hard in the exact place where his knife would have hit.

Ryzen shot down two shadow daggers that he purposely made appear close to the goblin to give it as little time to react as possible. He wouldn’t get as much force this way but he would at least manage to hit the goblin before it reacted.

Sure enough, the daggers impaled both the goblin’s arms causing it to shriek in pain. They weren’t deep wounds but enough for Ryzen to stab the goblin in his neck. The goblin immediately slumped over and died. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have any hidden requirements to kill it like the demons or vampires did.

As soon as the goblin died, the rest either scattered or were easily killed by the vampires. Afterward, the boss vampire walked up to Ryzen and gave him a light smile.

“Thank you for your help. May I ask you who you are?” he asked

“Name’s Alex. We’re just travelers passing by and just happened to be staying when this happened.” Ryzen said.

“We’re?” the vampire questioned. “Who else is with you?”

Ryzen inwardly groaned at his lack of foresight. He had just given the vampire more information than was necessary.

Taking advantage of the moment, Enancia walked out and frowned, “I’m with him. We mean you no harm.”

Upon seeing her, the vampires glared. It seemed Enancia wasn’t lying when it came to tensions between the vampires and demons. They were just lucky that news of the recent attack hadn’t spread yet. Ryzen wouldn’t have been surprised if they would have attacked on sight if that were the case.

“Why is there a demon with you?” the vampire growled.

“She is my traveling partner. She has no conflict with you.” Ryzen said.

“You will not determine if I have a conflict with someone or not. Demon girl, tell me. Why should I trust you?”

Ryzen stared coldly at the vampire but didn’t make any moves. He wouldn’t unless he absolutely needed to.

“I…I was abandoned by my race. I hate them just as much as you do.” she said calmly.

The vampire pulled back just barely and took a moment to think.

“Fine. But I expect you know not to touch these humans. They are protected by us.” the vampire said with a growl. He then turned around and went back into the building they came out of. The other vampires faithfully followed his lead.

“Wait,” Ryzen said.

The vampire turned around with a stern look on his face. “What is it?”

“Your name. What is it?” Ryzen asked.

“Oh, my apologies. I am known as Hedmon Lodick.” Having answered the question, Hedmon walked back into the building.

“Thank you for your help!” the man who had greeted them said. "Please do rest while we clean up the town. We’ll have a meal prepared soon."

Ryzen nodded and walked with Enancia back into their room. She looked to be slightly annoyed but Ryzen wasn’t sure if he should bring it up. He didn’t know if it was his place.

“Ryzen,” Enancia said softly.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Can I complain to you about stuff?”

As it turns out, it apparently very much was his place.

“Sure.”