Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

Claire asked as she stepped out of a portal. She looked as her Mr. Hey also left the portal and then asked him again.

“Should I make another one a little bit closer to the temple? We have to walk a little bit to reach that place... I didn’t know the exact coordinates so...”

“No. It’s fine.”

The two of them could see an old, half-destroyed, and familiar-looking structure in the distance. It wasn’t too far away, but not too close either. They had to walk a little bit to reach the temple.

“Huh? What is that?”

It was after walking for a few minutes that Claire suddenly pulled her Mr. Hey’s sleeve as she pointed somewhere.

“A car?”

“Why is a car here? And such a big one...”

.....

Both of them asked at the same time.

“Did someone come here before us?”

Claire looked up at her M. Hey who said those words under his lips.

“SMF?”

“Probably.”

“Uh? What should we do now?”

“For now, let’s go see if they are really here.”

Mr. Hey said as he took one step towards the temple. They weren’t too far away from it now. They could see some parts of the temple from where they were.

“Huh? Where are they?”

But there was no one in the temple.

“Maybe they didn’t come-”

It was at that moment.

ONGGGGG

ZZZZZZZZ

The ground started to slightly vibrate and they could see a red light starting to shine from somewhere behind the temple.

“Whoah!”

Claire grabbed Mr. Hey’s cloak.

“It’s like last time!”

The time when they met SMF guys in the temple of nature. That time, when this red thing appeared, her Mr. Hey left her and ran towards that boy. Scared that such a thing might happen again, the girl grabbed the cloak with both hands with all her might.

OONNNGGG

ZZZAAAPPP

And then, the red light blasted like magma, covering the whole place in red for a few seconds.

Mr. Hey walked a little bit closer to the source of the blast. He could see someone standing beside a platform and holding his hand under

some shiny white thing. After a few seconds, the shiny white thing lost its light and something fell on the person’s hand.

“The artifact...”

Claire mumbled. That person had the thing that they were after. She glanced at the person, that she assumed was the GPS boy, then looked up at her Mr. Hey.

“What should we do?”

Should we attack them to take away the artifact by force?

“They got their hands on it before us.”

Mr. Hey turned around.

“Nothing we can do.”

“Eh?”

“We are leaving.”

“Uh? Really? Won’t boss be mad?”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Okay...”

Claire nodded her head and waved her hand to create a portal, but she had to stop her action.

“Huh?”

It was because she was suddenly pulled back before a shade of black hugged her and covered her whole body.

“Mr. Hey-”

BOOOOMMMMM

And then, she heard a loud explosion. So loud that she had to cover her ears and close her eyes. The ground was shaking and she could feel some small things graze past her skin and scratch it.

The shaking and the voice stopped only after a few seconds. Claire hesitantly opened her eyes, only to notice how the air was dusty so much that she couldn’t see anything.

“What was that?”

“Something fell... from the sky...”

It was after hearing Mr. Hey’s mumbles that she finally realized that the man just protected her, using his body as a shield.

“Mr. Hey! Are you alright??”

“Yes.”

He answered with a nonchalant voice as he let go of the girl and stood straight again, looking back at the place where that thing just fell down from the sky.

“Ah?”

A dumbfounded gasp left his mouth as soon as he did so. It was because he couldn’t see anything at all. A huge, dome-like barrier was covering the whole area around the temple. He stared at the dome for a few seconds before suddenly realizing something.

“Kairen!”

He approached the dome and tapped it with his hand.

Tap Tap

“Kairen?”

He punched the barrier, but nothing happened. Not even a scratch, not even a crack, nothing.

“Kairen? What happened? Are you alright? Hey? Kairen?”

He then heard another man’s voice coming from not too far away. Mr. Hey took some steps back and turned to the source of the voice, only to see a crowd gathered outside the dome a few meters away from him.

“He is not answering!”

“What the hell! What was that?”

BOMM BOMM

A blonde boy was kicking the dome.

“This thing won’t bodge!”

BANG BANG

Another black-haired woman was hitting the barrier with her aura.

“Gah! What the hell!”

“Did his communication device break?”

“Kairen? Can’t you hear me?”

Me. Hey stared at the crowd. They were worriedly going around while trying to break the barrier and communicate with Kairen. He knew too well who those people were. He had seen them a lot recently after all. Mr. Hey looked at them for a few moments before strolling toward them at a fast pace.

“What? Why are you going that way!!”

Claire, about to pull her hair out of nervousness, nagged as she followed Mr. Hey.

“What happened?”

.....

Mr. Hey asked before he had even reached the group. He opened his mouth again as soon as he noticed that everyone’s attention was on him.

“What was that thing that fell from the sky?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

He received silent gazes in return.

“Answer me!”

There was some preserved anger in his voice this time. He was now standing only a few steps away from team leader Dains, who frowned upon hearing his words. The team leader looked at the man before sighing and shaking his head.

“We don’t know.”

He clenched the communication device in his hand and looked at the barrier.

“Seems like the device is broken, or this dome is preventing it from working. If there is a barrier, then the thing, maybe the person, that fell from the sky must have the ability to use mana... And a strong ability at that, judging how we can’t even scratch it...”

“You teleport in there?”

The team leader shook his head.

“We tried to, but it didn’t work.”

“Tsk!”

The man clicked his tongue.

“What in the world are you even capable of doing? You are always so helpless that I pity you. Useless things!”

“Hey!”

“Shut up!”

He said to the team leader’s face.

“...”

And for some reason, the team leader really shut his mouth.

“Claire!”

He looked at the girl who was hidden behind his back.

“Can you create a-”

It was at that moment.

RUMBLE

Something rumbled in the sky, making the man stop his words and look up at the sky.

RUMBLE

There was a red something in the sky. Something that was giving off a scary and ominous feeling, making the hairs rise on the spectators’ backs.

“Huh?”

Before the frozen group of people could even understand what that thing was, something flashed before their eyes. Something red. Something huge, something destructive.

And then-

B-BOOOOOOMMMMM

The thing struck the ground like a thunderbolt.

“Gah!”

“Whoah!”

The ground rumbled, shook, and cracked apart. A huge amount of energy hit the bodies of the people standing outside the barrier and sent them back. The weather heated up and a strong gust of wind was created.

“What the hell!”

“Oh, my goddess!”

The people outside the barrier, now some sprawled on the ground and some barely holding up by thrusting their weapons on the ground, looked at their surroundings in pure shock and fright.

Just in the split of a second, the whole plain had turned upside down.

“...Kairen...”

The man who was standing still in front of the barrier while grabbing his spear mumbled absentmindedly.

“Ren...”

His hand holding the spear was trembling noticeably.

“Portal...”

He said in a low and shaky voice as he turned his head towards Claire, who was hugging the man’s legs while crouching down and hiding behind his sturdy back.

“Create a portal!”

He moved a little bit, making the girl snap out of her daze.

“Huh- Ah! Ah! Yeah! Portal!”

She waved her hand. A purple-black portal appeared in the air instantly.

The man didn’t even wait a second. As soon as the portal was created, he jumped inside it while dragging Claire with him.

“Wait-”

Just when team leader Dains was about to walk into the portal as well, the thing disappeared into the thin air.

“Hey!”

“They left us behind!”

“Dang! I really feel useless!”

“We ARE useless!”

The team members’ voices rose to the air.

“Kairen! What happened to him! That lighting just struck where he was... Can he even survive... Gah! What the hell!”

Reyan who was absentmindedly saying whatever came to his mind was forced to stop his words.

Rumble

Rumble

Onnggg

It was because the ground was shaking once again.