A wet and unpleasant sensation spread across Sarien’s face. He sat up, sputtering, then gasped from pain. Moving his arm proved difficult and his leg was a mess of blood.

“Daisy?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

The dog sat right next to him, wagging its tail.

Sarien blinked and looked around. They were in a field of grass surrounded by a mass of pinkish sludge. He saw chunks of tentacles and smaller severed pieces of rhinn soldiers.

The Xzxyth!

It was dead. But, how?

In the distance, he saw a village. Beyond that, a forest. Nothing too strange in this new world, but he shouldn’t stay. He knew this was the home of the creature that took control of Ben. Sarien needed to return to his own world and find Goslin and the rest of his friends again. He needed to return to the Karm estate. There had to be a way to restore Ben to his old self.

He wondered if Heradion had already arrived there. The pyromancer stated he was going to investigate the matter, but Sarien didn’t trust him. Not after everything he’d learned.

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

“Let’s go home,” he told Daisy. Sarien closed his eyes and did his best to ignore the shooting pain in his leg and arm. He grasped the white flame inside the left side of his body. Not a broken pyromancer’s flame, not something to be dissected and fixed.

It was his power, and with it, he could travel between worlds.

The white flame churning inside him and answered his call.

Before he had a chance to use it, someone spoke. “You’re either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid trying to use magic in this place.”

A woman had come up behind him without making a sound. She was young, about his age, with jet black hair and an amused expression on her face.

“Who are you?” he asked. She was no rhinn, that much was certain. Her eyes were large and expressive, but not the monstrous size of a rhinn’s.

“If you do what I say right now,” she answered, looking over his shoulder toward the village, “you’ll be able to call me Savior.”

Sarien looked back toward the village. Black dots were moving at quickly toward them. He looked back at the young woman. “I’m Sarien.”

Savior offered her hand, and he let her pull him to his feet. “Thanks,” he said, leaning the bulk of his weight onto her. “Why shouldn’t I use magic?”

Savior looked up at him and frowned. “It’s blocked. Don’t you know anything?” She kicked at a severed tentacle. “Why do you think your magical construct died? Hope you two weren’t close.”

Sarien sighed. It appeared he wouldn’t be going back to his own world anytime soon.