Clang.

Clang, Clang, Clang.

Ajax and Shaula turn their heads to the noises around them. They see Ronas, Wilney, Pilate and Gundi on their backs unconscious. It makes them momentarily forget what Alin had just asked them.

The two Miella silently collapse on the ground as well. Their compound eyes don’t close because they do not have eyelids. It appears to Ajax and Shaula as if they’ve died.

“Ah. That’s better.”

Ajax turns back to face him, the unknown man who had called himself Alin.

“What… what did you just do? Are… are they...”

“I merely put them to sleep, child. You can see their breaths, can’t you?”

Ajax and Shaula take a closer look towards the men. They’re still wearing their helmets but because Ajax had drastically reduced the surrounding temperature in his anger, their breaths can be seen clearly.

It is a similar case with the Miella, except… the air is being inhaled and exhaled from multiple hidden openings on the sides of their bodies and specifically not their heads.

“Why did you do that?”

Ajax asks this question of him.

“Well, I would prefer that they not have a look at my face or form. I knocked them out right before I introduced myself to you. Those unconscious children of Panaphon will not wake up for an even longer time now. Oh wait, I suppose you call them beastkin here.”

“So… everyone is knocked out around us? How can you knock them out but not us?”

“Why indeed. This is a wide area spell but… well, I suppose inability to put the two of you to sleep is not so surprising.”

Alin stares at the two of them, his golden hair streaked with sanguine-red and fluttering in the breeze.

“So… what do you want then?”

Shaula makes this inquiry. She has not heard the name Alin before. She was also unable to sense his presence. She didn’t hear his footsteps or smell any odd scent in the area.

She had been aware of such things during their entire encounter with the bandits. She wished to keep an eye out for any form of surprise attack. But, for her to miss someone so consequential...

Even now, she cannot smell his presence. As if he has no smell… or rather that his smell has been hidden from her.

Alin looks over at the two Miella he put to sleep. They look particularly creepy while asleep because they do not have eyelids but Alin takes off his left gauntlet to gently stroke their white fur.

His left hand has sharp, black claws…

“Well? Are you going to answer me?”

“Child, please… Let me enjoy the feel of this beautiful creature’s fur. One must always take the time to enjoy life no matter what they’re doing. It was something… my mother had told me.”

Shaula holds Ajax’s right arm tightly. She wishes to convey to him that they should keep their guard around him. Ajax understands her concern and agitation.

Alin had been observing Ajax and Shaula. He wasn’t able to spend time with the animals, he was busy taking note of their abilities, potential and battle experience.

“You know… I heard what that merchant had said earlier. I don’t blame you for killing him. I would have done the same. Including his men there. Just as culpable from my viewpoint.”

Ajax’s face tenses at the biting words of Alin. Shaula narrows her eyes as she observes Alin’s every action. A tall, handsome man but poisonous and hiding a great deal.

“Just, hold on a minute.”

Alin puts his left gauntlet back on and walks forward. Ajax and Shaula are in his way. Shaula pulls Ajax back in caution to Alin, trying to maintain a fixed distance from him at all times.

Alin walks past them nonchalantly and stops over the body of the beastkin man whom the merchant had killed.

The bandit commander.

Shaula observes Alin’s face. She sees him mouth a few words but she can’t make it out as she can’t lip read. The man places his right hand on the body of the bandit commander. Blood flow from his neck has already stopped.

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Whoosh!

“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

Ajax burst with desperate anger at Alin’s current action but Shaula holds him back by his left arm.

Alin’s hand has brightened bluish-white and Alin’s body has erupted in a blaze of bright, blue fire. About five seconds pass and the bandit corpse disappears. All that’s left is a heap of molten metal on the ground (made from the bandit’s armour) mixed with the bandit’s grey ashes.

Alin has cremated the bandit commander. Ajax and Shaula never even heard the dead man’s name. But… he is dead, never to return. There was no way to save him.

“I’m sorry for the rash action but I don’t like seeing my brethren left in the open like this. I gave him a proper ritual cremation.”

“You… you could have warned us… Jesus Christ, what’s wrong with everyone here--”

“Ajax, hold on. You… you just asked us something. What did you ask us before? You… You know that we’re...”

“Oh, the fact that you’re not humans from our world of Omicron? Yes, I am curious. I heard a lot of interesting things when the child Ajax there was ranting and raving about this shitty world he’s found himself in… It’s too much of a coincidence to my own mission that you’re just random people. You’re heroes, correct?”

“NO! No... No, we’re not. They said--”

“Ajax, don’t say anymore. Be more mindful, idiot. Sigh. First of all, why do you want to know about us being heroes or not?”

Alin ignores Shaula’s question and looks away from the two of them. He paces back and forth trying to assimilate into his mind what Ajax had just blurted out.

“Hm. Yes… I suppose it wouldn’t make sense for you to be heroes. All recently landed heroes cannot use any magic or unleash their potential until receiving significant training. I’ve never heard of heroes who could use fire or ice magic so quickly and effortlessly. But...”

Alin turns to the two of them, his gaze piercing them.

“You’re something. Something I’ve felt before from my mother. A special… energy... Are you two… divine beings of some kind? Foreign demigods would be my guess… You definitely landed here from somewhere else, that much is clear. Perhaps… perhaps you came with the heroes… but you’re not them?”

“Wh-What? Demigods...”

Shaula has met someone quite interesting. She had just earlier considered herself to possibly be a demigod or angel or heavenly entity. Now, Alin has put it together far more quickly with much less clues.

An impressive, deductive mind.

Shaula ponders to herself what she could ask this person. This person… has knowledge and intelligence. Alin knows important things that could help them survive here.

She asks her first question.

“Have you heard of the god Ahura Mazda?”

“Ahura Mazda… Hmm... No. I haven’t. Another player? Actually… is that the name of Sapiora’s aid in the other world who prepares heroes for him?”

“Sapiora? He’s the one who wanted us here? Not Ahura Mazda?”

Ajax asks this question trying to gather any information he could use.

“Yes. Sapiora is the god of the human race determined to destroy this world. Ahura Mazda has no stake here.”

“Destroy… this world...”

Is Sapiora the god who summoned them or is it Ahura Mazda? The god who summoned them to fight the demons wishes to destroy this world… something doesn’t feel right about all this. One of these two parties is lying, either Alin or the followers of Sapiora.

Ajax doesn’t believe it’s Alin, though.

“I won’t go into detail about the truth of this world. That can be done later when you’re ready to hear it.”

Alin considers the two of Ajax and Shaula. Two people who are unfamiliar with the ways of this world or its stakes. People who would not trust a stranger like him or the words he has to offer.

And right now, it seems that Alin needs the two of them but they don’t necessarily need him. Alin is confident that he could defeat multiple heroes in combat but demigods… he wouldn’t want to fight them, especially if they weren’t his enemies.

He doesn’t need to make these two his enemies. He needs to deal with them carefully. They’re already far above most humans in that they consider the children of Panaphon to be living creatures equal to humans.

Alin has heard in Ajax’s raging tirade about how he had suffered at the hands of those who called him ‘race traitors’. Certainly, those are other human beings. The name Vonis also is a human name.

Vonis… I’ll have Heliaye give me details on who that might be. It has a noble ring to it, have I heard it before?

These two must have cut their ties with anyone who would call them ‘race traitors’ so the Holy Sapioran Federation is automatically their opposer.

“But… so you were sent here with the heroes then, but… you’re not heroes? What is your aim here?”

“We’re not going to fight with the humans, those fucking scumbags. We just want to live here until he brings us back home. Shaula and I just want to live here in peace.”

“Brings you back home... I’m afraid that’s--”

“He told us he would. He promised us. He promised me that my parents and sister would be safe until then. He’d come here to retrieve us in a few… decades.”

“...What?”

Alin has heard something very, very important from Ajax. That phrasing. Retrieve them? The aid to Sapiora is coming to retrieve them? No. That must be a lie. A trick of some kind. But… if it wasn’t...

If that was a trick then I would have heard one of the former heroes mention it. Promises to return home… But no. They were all told they could never return to their world. How can these two… I see. They’re special. Their purpose is… something else. Something related to the god of their world. And… they’re not on the humans’ side. Interesting. If they were merely heroes, Sapiora’s puppet warriors, then I would extinguish them right here but… they have divine power, actual divine power. These two may prove… no, they will prove crucial. There is hope yet for our world. But, their resolve… they aren’t prepared for sacrifice.

Alin looks over at the two of them. He examines their expressions. He considers their character at the moment from what he’s seen of them so far. The woman might be ready.

The other though...