Steps pounded out through a forest as Mican sprinted with all of his speed on the cobblestone path. He had been running for around two hours now, and he still was only breathing roughly.

Any sweat on the young man’s body was quickly dried by the breeze cooling his face.

If he had to guess at the season he found himself in, it would be spring, or summer. The sun shone down gently from the sky, enshrouding the world in light. It was sometimes covered up by the clouds in the sky, which were moving constantly, providing Mican a welcome rest to his perspiration.

Throughout the young man’s flight, he had seen long forests covering the earth, massive mountains far off in the distance, giant rolling fields of grass, and a large variety of strange looking plants and animals.

He was never quite able to take a good look, as he was running past, but from what he could see he was able to make out odd creatures that looked both very similar and vastly different from his home world’s.

At one point alongside the road, he had seen a pure-black little rabbit, with crystal gem eyes. It stared at him curiously for a moment before hopping away.

On the rolling plains, he had seen what looked to him to be an unbelievably large pair of humanoid legs walking in the distance, obscured by a haze of mist. He had even seen a giant hand gripping a tree trunk in the forest, but he had quickly fled after such a sight.

There had only been one other sighting of people that Mican had seen in his journey, a family of three making their way across the road in the forests on a horse-driven carriage. He had circumvented the area as far he could, making sure they could not see him.

It seemed to him as if this was not an obscure road for no reason, as implied by Erving.

There was one major thing that he had noted in his run, being his nonsensical healing speed. The broken bones in his hand and all but healed up throughout the hours, leaving his fingers only feeling slightly sensitive, and his brutal cuts had stopped bleeding altogether.

Several of the wounds had torn apart in his strenuous movements, but they seemed to heal back up even more tenaciously afterwards. It shocked him down to his core, but it was a pleasant and curious shock. He felt as if he were a superhero in a comic book, unstoppable and filled with energy.

After a little while longer of running, the forest’s trees broke formation into the edge of a large escarpment, banking what looked to be a small valley.

The young man stumbled slightly, kicking up grass and dirt as he broke his momentum to stop himself from falling off the edge. Panting heavily, the young man sat down on the ground and took the opportunity to rest his legs.

Mican’s back and head bent down to inspect his wounds once again, having done so several times ever since he had begun running. Clenching and unclenching the various muscles on his body, he reconfirmed his bodily functions were working as intended, not letting his guard down.

Pulling up his shirt, he noted that the large cut on his body had been scabbed over, and if he waited long enough then he could see it healing at a visible speed.

Releasing his shirt, he turned his head back up and shielded his eyes from the bright sun. The heat of the rays were growing in intensity, and it looked to be approaching noon, with the sun high up in the sky.

Getting his eyes adjusted to the bright light, he looked towards the strange giant head in the sky, inspecting it once again. Mican found himself doing so quite often whenever he took breaks from the running, and he couldn’t quite figure out why.

When he gazed at the head, it always gave him a sense of unwillingness in death, as if he was about to die but with many unfulfilled regrets. The thought and feeling disturbed him immensely but he found himself looking anyway, due to his burning curiosity.

“Hey, I said unpack the cargo before we begin pushing, you dolts.”

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A loud voice broke Mican out of his trance, and he quickly stood up, backing up into the cover of the trees while looking for the source.

“Alright you lazy bastards, get ready to push on the count of three!”

The shouting continued, out of Mican’s eyesight. Crouching down and walking silently, he took a few steps up to the edge of the small cliff.

To his immediate right, down below him, the young man spotted a group of what seemed to be travellers, gathered around a carriage, pushing and shoving at the wagon. The wheel of the carriage was stuck in a rut in the cobblestone path they were on, and they were evidently trying to get it out.

Looking behind them, the young man noticed that the path stretched on into the forest behind him, disappearing into the trees. Looking further ahead, the majestic sight of a city opened up to him.

Many clear stacks of stone bricks were neatly piled on top of each other, sealed into a massive wall around twenty-five meters in height, surrounding the city. Mican could tell it was a city as he could spot many buildings both large and small inside of the walls from his vantage point.

The forest surrounded the city from several sides, through long escarpments, and rolling plains surrounded the sides not covered by the forest. A large muddy lake ran around the city, and large mountains could be seen off in the distance.

Many men were patrolling the cities walls, and Mican could see even more stationed in towers built in segments in the wall. The wall stretched a massive length, covering his line of sight from the left to the right.

Outside of the walls, there was a massive gate surrounded by several smaller gates. A long line of people could be seen waiting outside of the gate, in large crowds. They were presumably waiting for entry into the grand city.

Further grunts of effort and shouts rang out below Mican as the group continued their efforts in freeing their wagon from its predicament. They were probably headed towards the city themselves, given the path they were on.

Taking a moment to deliberate, Mican gazed at the city and the group of people. From first sight, he really wanted to go into the city, and helping these people with his unnatural strength seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

Though in thinking further, he sighed to himself and decided against it. Getting back up, he looked at the path he was currently on. The stone path stretched onwards through the escarpment, threading the line of the cliffside by a fairly safe margin.

Taking once last glance at the city, he continued running once again, leaving the grunts and struggling of the group behind him.

The young man had deemed his choice to be the best one out of consideration for the current circumstances. He was being pursued by multiple parties, and one of the ones he was most concerned about was the supposed “Church of War”.

Any religion large enough to warrant its own archbishop, not to mention four, was likely incredibly powerful and widespread.

It was only logical to him that such a large city would have such a religion, and he did not want to risk getting caught between a rock and a hard place, between the city and his current pursuers.

This city was likely the one that the party had been trying to get to, considering as he had not seen any of such civilizations on his run to it. This thought only strengthened his belief that the Church of War had taken roots in the city.

Picking his pace up into a run, Mican breathed in rhythm with his steps as he ran. A loud gurgling sounded out into the surroundings, akin to the roar of a beast.

Frowning slightly, the young man rubbed his stomach gently. Having not eaten a proper meal in quite the long time, his stomach was protesting against him.

He felt exhaustion creeping in from the long running, and his legs were slightly aching from the rest, but he forced himself to continue forward. With all of the shocking things he had seen through his time on this new world, he firmly refused to let his guard down.

Who knew what magical methods his pursuers had to catch up to him.

Continuing his run across the cliffside, he trailed off into the forest and the trees broke out to reveal large swathes of plains covered with forests.

The city walls behind him swiftly disappeared into the background as he travelled downwards, and the cobblestone road began spreading out into multiple different paths.

Seeing as to how the area cleared out, with nobody in current sight, the young man stopped in his tracks.

Reaching both of his hands down, Mican unhooked the ceremonial mace from his belt and gripped it tightly in both of his hands. Spreading out his legs to shoulder-width, he began slowly spinning in circles, building up momentum using the weight of the mace.

Seeing as to how his hand had freed up and considering his decision to keep on running after seeing an extremely populated area, he decided to rid himself of his flashy weapon.

It was too flashy to be kept from notice, especially since he was probably going to be running into more travellers on the main roads. If there was any trouble, it would probably be safer for him to even fight with his bare fists.

Dust on the ground began lifting up and the leaves and branches around Mican began to sway from the wind generated from his sheer might.

After one more solid rotation, the young man dug his feet into the ground and twisted his hips, flinging the mace as far as he could in the direction he had come from. The mace shot out like a rocket from his grip, quickly turning into a sparkling gold blur in the air as it soared into the distance.

Mican had seen nobody on his trip there, so he was not worried about it hitting anybody.

Turning back around, the young man surveyed the splitting stone paths in his view. Randomly choosing one, he began running into the distance.