SHOUT OUT to DeZun for all his support.

Thank you for the gifts ^^

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"You\'re stuck here for years?" Rosa repeated with bulging eyes.

Ryu made mental calculations. Even if he wasn\'t sure about the days, he was sure that they weren\'t trapped in Tethy\'s Islet for a year.

"You\'ve must be confused," Fjord chuckled despite their grave situation. "You must have come from other planes."

Ryu tilted his head. "Other planes?"

"That\'s the only explanation." Rosa pondered for a moment. "Our timeline deference and this bizarre world. .. everything was just different, and the only explanation is the existence of numerous worlds."

Ryu didn\'t believe that there existed a world besides Septverden, but here they were. In a world where everything was glass and metal.

"Where have you come from then?" Rosa asked.

Fjord and Mayla looked at each other before the former said, "I originally belonged in a parallel world like this one while Mayla came from Erundel."

A parallel world? Such thing exited? That explained why Fjord was proficient in using this metal wagon. Ryu thought.

"What happened here?" Ryu inquired after a short silence.

Fjord. "A virus that turned everyone into zombies. A classic tale of an experiment gone wrong. Some said that it was due to a disease from animals. Others simply said that it was brought about by the end of the world."

"Virus?"

Both Ryu and Rosa couldn\'t believe their ears. Just a disease and experiment? If they could access their skills and spells, everything would be easy.

But since they couldn\'t. . .

"I assumed that you two belonged in some kind of an RPG world! Like Mayla here! That\'s so cool!"

"RP. . .  G?" the letters and word were foreign in Ryu\'s mouth.

Fjord nodded, blurring his head in the process. "You know. A world where you have powers and such and could do magic and everything. Too bad you couldn\'t access them here. I really wish I could see how fire just magically erupted from your hands!"

"Are you a normal human?" Rosa questioned. The normal humans, the ones who have no abilities. They were abundant in the Mortal Realm too. They were usually at the bottom of the hierarchy.

"All inhabitants in this world and in my world are \'normal humans,\'" Fjord quoted. "Only you who came from other planes and dimensions have powers."

Rosa\'s lips rose. At least that put her at ease. That\'s one less threat. "Where are we going?"

"To our hideout. We call it the Sanctuary. It\'s one of the last strongholds of humanity." Fjord\'s expression then fell severe. "And it might be the last."

Ryu glanced over at Mayla when she took a peek at him in the front view mirror. She wasn\'t startled that she was caught staring. She just slowly averted her eyes towards the vehicle\'s window.

There was nothing much to see in this world. Either it was ruined or succumbed to decay. It must have been a beautiful sight before the zombies happened.

"How long did this place become like this?" Ryu asked.

Fjord looked over his head for a brief moment before he spun his attention on the road. "I don\'t know. They said it\'d been more than ten years. Honestly, I stopped caring after my one year stay in here."

Rosa prompted her head over her hand, elbow resting against the vehicle\'s window. "How did you end up here?"

Fjord\'s expression fell into sadness. "I didn\'t know either. I was crossing the street one moment, and the next thing I knew, I was hit by a truck. When I opened my eyes, I ended up here."

It must have been hard for a normal human to end up in this place with no one but himself. Ryu thought.

"Oh!" Fjord\'s face brightened. "We\'re almost here."

Both Ryu and Rosa looked over the window and found gigantic walls of metal imposing over the distance barged with barbs and spiky wires. Upon closer inspection, Ryu found humans on each turret with a weird-looking metal thing on their hands.

"What are those they\'re carrying?" Ryu smelled something metallic mixed with acids, blood, and rotting flesh.

"Guns," chortled Fjord. "They\'re very handy against the undead."

He then wrinkled his nose. "Though we\'re running low of ammunition now since they were no longer any production of those."

"Guns. . ." Ryu eyed the giant gates. He presumed that there were refugees inside those walls. Who knows, maybe Seraphina was within it, and he grew excited.

Rosa\'s attention flickered from the towering gates towards the horde of undead who noticed their arrival. "How are we supposed to cross those hordes of zombies blocking our path?"

VrRoOoM!

Rosa didn\'t hear the answer to her question when Fjord stepped on the gas when the giant gates budged open. With a stir of the wheel, the vehicle bolted forward against the hordes of zombies.

BaAnNG!

A series of rattling sounds and explosions boomed in front of them, coming from the human above. But the vehicle didn\'t stop nor slow down. It continued its pace, ramming and hitting every zombie who dared to barge their path.

Rosa gaped when the zombies\' bodies congregated against her side of the window when the vehicle slowed because of the hordes of undead at their front. She flung her hand but realized that she couldn\'t use any spell, and her body shrunk closer to Ryu.

"A-at this rate, we\'re going to be trapped in here!" Rosa couldn\'t help but panic when the window glass was about to break from the sheer amount of zombies.

"Do something!" she roared, and Ryu wanted to smirk upon seeing her rattle for once.

"Don\'t worry! Everything is under control!" Fjord assured.

Rosa cut him a sharp glare, and before she could retort, another loud explosion rang in front of them, and the undead was shredded to pieces, their flesh and blood flying across the sky.

Fjord took advantage of the blast and stepped on the gas. Because of the explosion that killed almost all the zombies in their front, the vehicle moved once again.

"Aren\'t they afraid they\'re going to hit us?!" Rosa wasn\'t sure if someone had heard her voice amidst the chaos and explosions that were never ceasing.

"NO worries! We\'ve done this multiple times!" Fjord steered the wheel, and the vehicle was almost flying as it avoided the blast that came from above.

Rosa was getting dizzy from the nonstop explosion and the whirling of their wagon. She was about to be flung to her right again when Ryu steadied her with his arm around her shoulder while his other hand was grasping tightly against the chair in front of him.

Rosa was both stunned and appalled. Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed that Ryu\'s face was calm amidst the storm they were facing. He emitted a strange aura that made her think that everything would be okay as long as he was there.

Was it a beast thing?

Or was it because he was fighting without mana since day one that was why he was confident in a world where spells and skills didn\'t exist.  He relied only on his brute strength and agility to get this far. That was why even facing with this kind of situation didn\'t rattle him at all.

For some reason. . .  he was sparkling in her eyes.

Did such a trait attract her? She liked Lucian because he was the only one she could truly trust with her life. Was it the same case for Ryu now?

Rosa shook her head and blinked. Something must be really wrong with her. Or was she attracted to him now because he was the only person she could rely on?

Rosa bitterly smiled at herself.

Then what were those years of gruesome and torturous training to not rely on anyone but herself?

If her grandmother found out about this, she would reeducate her all over again.

This put a sharp glint in her eyes, and her face turned serious.

She\'d rather die than undergo that torture again!