Emptiness.

That's all I ever felt since I was left behind in the Vault of Glass. Ever since my teammates had left me for dead in Venus's future.

I had long since gotten used to it. Lying motionless on the ground before me as nothing else but a yet to be husk, as I waited in vain hope. My ghost and I rationed our light reserves, as there was no Traveler in this Vex future. Moss had ran over us both, as we laid there in vain hope of a rescue to never come. Moss that had grown as time flew us by.

Our words were always unspoken; not visible to us both either. We knew deep down inside however, what our conversations were. We had already spoken them, why we shouldn't just die, why they'd be looking for us, and our final thoughts in case we don't get out, and said them without having done such. It was our companionship in this never-ending silence. This never ending cycle of no future where I just stared into the sky, a vain hope of life in my eyes as my ghost laid beside me in a slumber I'm left to awaken him from.

Some would consider this cycle a madness. That we needed to keep talking as to not go mad. But what can a ghost and a warlock do, when they've had centuries to talk and wait?

I would've chuckled if I could. A maddening cycle for what was supposed to be mad. Yet, we could still feel our sanity. Sticking it out with us, as the clock stretches on forever. Our bond keeping it alive in mutual companionship of a future we wish for, as we flow along the passage of time.

And then the future came to us in the form of something unexpected.

A nightmarish portal opened up beneath us and immediately caused us to start falling, catching me by surprise. The moss desperately tried to cling onto us to prevent us from falling, but it was fruitless, as I thrashed about to quickly cover my ghost, who was yet to fully start up. Red eyes appeared all around me as I was falling into a seemingly endless abyss, twisting and turning until-

I landed on a hard wooden floor with a loud thunk, back landing first as the air suddenly left me. My HUD flashed red, my vitality signs having reached 25%. I attempted to get up, but hissed in pain from having laid back in total apathy for too long. Apparently, I needed to wait for my ghost to wake up.

"Yukari, I do believe I asked for a human. Not a moss covered mess." A young, feminine voice chose to comment, sounding somewhat miffed at me.

"It is, just covered up with some moss from where I found him." I heard the girl called Yukari say, as if unfazed. "Lemme remove the stuff."

It was at this point, I saw the blue light of my ghost light up, as if having sensed the impact. Upon seeing that we were somewhere other than the future, he immediately checked my vital signs, and, sure enough, a pulse wave of light went through me, my body getting set back in order and surprising those around me. I then did a kip, landing and standing straight up with my own two feet.

A small child with red eyes, short light-blue hair and a light-pink mob cap with a red ribbon decorated with white stripes stood before me. She wore a light-pink dress with a red ribbon on both sleeves, a large red ribbon behind her waist with white stripes and a necklace featuring a Caduceus-like centerpiece. She also had a pair of large black bat-like wings on her back with a wingspan wider than her height.

"Quite an unexpected entrance…" The girl made to comment, before shaking her head, giving me an almost conniving smile. "You there. You are to be my servant."

I blinked at her a bit. Then considered it by asking some meager questions, looking in the corners of my helmet's vision for any escape routes. I saw a window of opportunity, that of which being a literal window not too far away from me.

"Jump for it?"

"Sparrow ready to transmat on a moment's notice."

"GUARDIANS MAKE THEIR OWN FATE YA VAMPIRE WANNABE!" I let out in defiance and joy, sparrow instantly transmatting before me as I turned to the window. I pushed the pedal and started out in full speeds, as I reached the window, only to find myself stuck back where I started. I looked on in confusion as I reached the window a couple more times, getting sent right back to where I was before, until I suddenly ended up crashing into a wall inside of a dark room, bouncing back from the impact as the sparrow exploded.

"...Saga, what just happened?" I said, just staring at the wreck in confusion

"Who's Saga?"

I turned to look at the newfound speaker. A girl similar to the blue girl was standing behind me, exception being her hair was blonde, she had a spade tail, and with some kind of… jewel wings? I looked around for my ghost, finding that he had cloaked himself, before looking back at her. "Er, it's an AI in my helmet." I lied, figuring my ghost probably cloaked for a good reason. I then took my helmet off, revealing my human face. "Who are you?"

She seemed to stare in annoyance for a few moments before smiling. "My name's Flandre!"

"Nice to meet you Flandre." I said with a polite smile of my own "My-"

"Do you wanna play?" She asks, giving me one of those puppy dog-like stares.

Naturally, I resisted the temptation to agree. What sane man wouldn't want to just breathe fresh air right now? Sorry missy, but I got stuck in the future for hundreds of years, I don't care. "Miss Flan, while I'd like to, I kinda need to go back to my job of defending humanity."

She pouted. "Awww… ok." She pointed at me. "But you're not getting out of here. My sister had blocked the door."

"That blue-haired girl?" I tilted my head slightly to the side. "Why'd she lock you down… here?" I looked around, seeing nothing but a dimly lit basement. She must be horribly cruel to treat her like this… glad I dodged a bullet.

"Yeah, her!" Her eyes narrowed. "I keep waiting and waiting, but she never lets me out!"

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a moment. I then looked around, seeing nothing but a set of pillars to keep the place up and a doorway, a doorway behind me. The doorway itself lead into another room.

"Flandre, I think you've waited long enough." I then looked around for any sort of exit that I could use… or make.

She crossed her arms. "That's what I think too. But we aren't getting out of here."

"You can trap and block light all you want," I said, as my eyes settled on the staircase door. I walked to it, attempting to open it. Locked. "But we guardians find our way out. There's no truly stopping the light."

She tilted her head. "A… guardian?"

I looked to her. "Know where an air vent is? At least, an air vent big enough to insert a diamond shaped ball?"

"Guardian, I've already went through one. Making my way back to you now."

"Perfect."

Now she was only more confused. "You're weird. Well, there is a fireplace at the chimney." She pointed to a fireplace off to my left.

I moved over to it as to allow Saga to get a better grasp of my light, and proceeded to wait. Flandre looked on in confusion at my actions.

"You do realize that my sister will know? And that there's a barrier up there?" She pointed out.

I continued to ignore her until Saga responded again. Thankfully, not much time had passed until he notified me again.

"Ready?"

I took a deep breath, getting ready to stop my heart. "Always."

"Standby for resurrection guardian."

My heart stopped as soon as he finished, my light escaping my body. I fell to the ground, inert. My armor then transmatted, leaving only the necessary clothes on my body.

Flandre looked down at me in even more confusion. She placed a hand on my chest, waiting for the heartbeat that never came. She shrugged. "Well, it's free bl-"

I opened the door, interrupting her. "Said something about a locked door?"

She looked at me in complete bewilderment. I smiled at her, armor still on. "Life's a surprise huh?" I then pointed behind me. "Now let's move."

It was a few moments until she practically beamed at me.

Then she moved.

I had to move back a bit from the sheer force as she sped past me with a blur of motion, cackling maniacally as she did so. I looked behind me to see she was long gone.

"...Ok." I then looked for a window to dive out of. I found one a little ways away from me. I went to open it.

"You're not going after her?"

"She'll live. I'll just come for her again when I've had a bit of fun, and finding out where I am."

I then looked to my right side, noticing a weird looking broom girl with gold eyes and a witch hat. I pointed at her. "You saw nothing."

The girl shrugged and moved on.

I rubbed my hands and grinned, opening the window. The forest outside was a beautiful, bountiful green that awaited me, a mountain off in the distance for me to view the world around me. I took in the sights for a nice long while, having missed the normalcy of things.

The smell of air. I took a deep breath. "Oooooohhh... how did I FORGET this?!"

"I'd share in it too if I had a nose." My ghost replies.

"So you're the one who released Flandre in my library."

I turned to look at the speaker, who had the same hat as the blue-haired girl.

…

"NOPE!" I shouted, as I did a backflip out of the window. Fate could find someone else, because this guardian ain't having it!

I ran, passing by weird looking butterfly people, who yelped as I ran by. I didn't pay attention to them in the slightest, just focused on escaping.

After 10 minutes or so of running, I finally stopped, panting from exertion. I looked behind me to find that I had lost the weird looking mage girl with the mob cap… if she even chased to begin with.

My ghost appeared before me, and he rushed to my waiting hand in a sort of high five as we both let out a cry of victory, enjoying our newfound freedom for a few moments. Then the situation finally hit us.

"Where in the Traveler's name are we Saga?"

"That's actually a pretty good question… think it might be too late to turn back and apologize, Daishin?"

"Yep." I then sighed. "Get his weapons out along with the sword. It's our only ticket to living through this."

Saga nodded, and a few moments later, Praedyth's Timepiece fell into my hands, and felt the familiar weight of Praedyth's Vengeance and Young Wolf's Howl on my back. Steeling myself for the unknown, and swapping to my solar light, I pressed deeper into the forest.

We walked around the forest for a while, ecstatic to have finally been able to do something new. Sure it wasn't Venus so we could get back to our ship, but it was something. Especially since we couldn't go back and fix things up with the blue girl and her crazy hat friends.

The place was massive, with no clear indicator of where to go other than the sun. It had a surreal feel to it, like no guardian had ever stepped foot here, no light. My ghost couldn't detect any satellites for us to navigate with, stating that there seemed to be some kind of interference preventing us from connecting with the world. Some kind of barrier.

It wasn't long however, until I finally saw some more strange looking butterfly people of various sizes and somewhat different shapes throughout the forest. Small people who called themselves fairies ranging from the size of my palm, to the size of a small child, flew about with butterfly-like wings on them. Some simply greeted me and called me a 'youkai', while others pulled quick, small pranks on me. They weren't particularly bothersome, but they would get stuff on my visor occasionally.

I had initially been cautious, but as they weren't particularly dangerous I simply acknowledged them and moved on. The antics weren't that bothersome, and I knew nothing of their population. For all I knew, this was a long forgotten place the Traveler had left behind, and these were amalgamations of light. Saga would have the answers in a bit anyhow.

I then encountered a fairy around 5 feet tall. I decided to greet her, since she was most likely going to greet me.

"I'm Daishin." I said, as I idly hefted my gun away from her. "What about you?"

"I'm Cirno!" She then pointed to herself. "The strongest!"

"...The strongest what?"

"The Strongest!" She replies with a tougher tone.

I blinked again. I then looked her over and decided to take a guess. "So you're like, the strongest fairy or something? What are you strong at?"

Crino just stares at me. "Strongest there is...at...all!" She says, getting a little too close to my personal space.

"I'd say she's probably a weightlifter that doesn't read books, but she clearly lacks the muscle mass…" Saga said to me via my internal comms.

"Right…" I said slowly. "So, uh, do you know where I am by chance? I just escaped this spoiled, cosplaying brat's mansion, and have no idea exactly where in the solar system I'm at right now. The place looks like Earth, but I could be wrong."

"Solar system, the heck is that?" She questions him while leaning back and look up in thought.

I raised a brow. "Y'know, a sun with planets revolving around it? You do know there is much beyond this world right?"

"What's a planet?" Was her response.

"By the Traveler…" I let out, pausing for a few moments. "Either I'm not on Sol anymore, or you must have some sort of mental problem. Do you at least know where we are?"

"Oh, yeah!" She points to the mountain top from where they were, apparently not having heard the word 'mental'. "You're on Youkai Mountain!"

Ah, that reminds me... "Yeah, what's that by the way? The other fairies were calling me one of those Youkai things."

"Uhm… not human." She sums it up easily.

I let out a small sigh. "Well, gonna have to clear it up." I took off my mossy helmet, revealing my face. "100% human, as you can see. Make sure others know that, ok? Cause I ain't no Exo or Awoken."

"...Exo? Awoken?" She repeats, the words are very clearly foreign to her.

I looked at her in disbelief. "Surely you know of the 3 city races that arrived with light and darkness?" I said, internally hoping that she was really that dumb.

"We couldn't have gotten teleported that far… right? I mean, this isn't Vex or Hive work here." I said to Saga in my internal comms.

"Only three?" Cirno almost criticizes with a matching look. "Right, human, weak…"

As I was about to shoot back at her with her lack of knowing the solar system, Saga responds back. "She might be right, guardian. I'm getting no satellites."

"What?" I said in disbelief.

"I just got bypassed the interference, and I'm saying there's no satellites!" My ghost almost yelled out in a panic."And these fairies clearly aren't something we didn't know about the Traveler, because I just scanned her and her biology doesn't consist of any light!"

"Sweet breath of the Traveler…" My eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"Hey, are you there stupid human?" Cirno waves her hand in my face. "I'm still talking to you!"

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I narrowed my eyes and continued the conversation, intent on trying to figure things out. "Says the one who doesn't know about the solar system. You probably never even heard of the Light."

This very clearly upset her. "I know about light, sunlight, candlelight… uhm… Nuclear light?" She fails her arms. "That weird green stuff that's super hot in Old Hell, in that weird thingy!"

I raised an eyebrow, before sighing, deciding that wherever I was now, nobody had heard of the Traveler. "Not the natural light. I'm talking the Traveler's light, but clearly you primitive folk haven't been touched by it." He then crosses his arms. "Either way, I-"

"Primitive?!" Three… Two...One… "...What's that?" Three seconds of us staring at each other. "Wait, are you calling me stupid?!"

"And it took you that long to realize it, thus making my claim true." I said in response,giving her a professional smile. "Anyway, you know the nearest town? I need someone smart to tell me about society and its technological status."

"Grrrrrr…" She was outright shaking, going red while she glares at me. "Fight meh!" Apparently so mad, she had trouble speaking straight.

"I don't fight people without a weapon, mentally or physically. It's against guardian dogma to fight those without a weapon." I motioned to the pulse rifle.

"Baka! Magic, idiot mage!" Like some sort of malicious demonstration, she cups her hands and a large ice spike shoots out pass me, going into the ground. "Like that, human!" She says with a frosty mist flowing from her hands.

I felt a tugging on my light as she did this. It wasn't particularly strong, but it did seem to be doing something miniscule to it. "Is she… taking my light?"

"More like the heat from it." Saga quickly mentions. "It's not doing anything to drain you, but it's weakening the effectiveness of your abilities slightly."

Taking a mental note of it, I continued. "Miss, magic isn't real. You can harness energy, but there's nothing in the world like magic. Even Light and Dark has roots in science. That said, what are you harnessing to drain the heat in the vicinity?" As I said this, I slowly aimed the Timepiece at her.

She looked either completely lost or was ignoring him at this point. "Dodge! Hail Sign "Hailstorm"!" And with that, a cluster of icicles was shot out wildly, as she flew high into the air.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I shrieked out in surprise, desperately dodging her attacks. A few icicles managed to hit me, quickly draining my shields down to half, and freezing the Timepiece in a block of ice.

Realizing the weapon was useless at the moment, I dropped a solar grenade nearby, and quickly rolled over into it to unfreeze the weapon. I almost fired at her, but stopped myself from pulling the trigger, in fear that I might kill her, and not find out the truth of things. The solar grenade only lasted for 3 seconds, destroying the icicles hitting the solar field before dissipating, leaving me exposed to the elements again, forcing me to desperately dodge her attacks.

"What the hell is that!? How are you flying without the light?!" I then pointed at her accusingly, as I weaved and dodge through the bullets. Thank the Traveler that I participated in territory battles!

"IdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiot!" Was all she was saying, eyes shut and arms flailing wildly, continuously firing. "Humans can do this too, idiot!" She was slowly getting her words under control, if out of smugness if nothing else. "You do it!" And she fires more barrages at me.

"I can only float in the air for a short amount of time!" I fired back at her, having gotten used to the bullet pattern. The 'magic' blasts were faster, however, forcing me to focus as I talked. "None of this is what the light is! And it certainly can't summon this much without serious consequences!"

"Guardian, from what I'm gathering in this, these 'signs' she speaks of must mean she's summoning a powerful attack. Keep listening to her."

"Gee, you fucking think Saga?!"

Her pattern holds, getting faster and faster, and forcing me to keep moving. I waited for a response, but the ice fairy didn't want to talk, seemingly focused on trying to stomp me out. Gritting my teeth, I summoned a firebolt, and threw it below her. She, of course, doesn't even try to dodge it.

"Missed me!" She mocks me, visibly getting less upset. And like a child, she doesn't let up the verbal knocking. "Missed me!"

As the grenade lands, solar light was released, a small radius of it passing around her. It then closes back to the center, and a beam of solar light launches at her, hitting her in the underside of her chin.

"Gah!" A crackling noise was heard, a circle appearing and looking visibly damaged. While she did move a few feet back, she didn't seem actually injured by the attack. However, the attack did go through her clothes, cutting it up through the middle.

I let up a bit, expecting her to have at least stumbled from the impact as I dodged the remaining projectiles. "Now will you let up a bit, and actually tell me about this 'magic' you have?"

Pouting, she crosses her arms. "Fine. Magic is… is just is! What you did works! It's not like it's going to kill you anyway!"

She really is an idiot. I thought to myself, before realizing something as I once again looked over her, realizing the damage done. Her clothing had now barely covered her body, a blue bra now visible underneath the clothing. Wait, how did the clothing get destroyed, but she didn't suffer any burns? This "magic" thing she speaks of is a load of cabal shit!

"Aw man!" With a shatter, the circle breaks and dissipates before a new one forms, the clothing fixing itself as well. It was a different circle, a minor difference but still the same. "Here I go! Cold Sign "Insta-Freeze Beam"!" Small clusters of blue balls were shot in faster and smaller sizes and kept at a circle barrier and pulsing forwards. Nothing too crazy, even the subsequent tri-beamed laser wasn't too much of a surprise,

Not intimidated at all, I casually moved around them, as I waited for another grenade, knowing it'd take me a while to summon another. I tried to talk her down during that time. "Look, buddy, I can only do that once every 30 seconds! I can't pull out icicles out of my ass like that!" I said as I dodged a stream of lasers aimed at me. "So no, I don't know what this magic thing you're talking about is, and I'd very much like some answers!"

"Magic is magic! What else? How do you not know about magic, everyone knows magic!" She says while sticking out her tongue.

"Well, I don't!" I said back in response. "And certainly not to the extent you do!"

She stares at me for a while before huffing and the circle vanishing. "Fine, I'll be nice and let you go… this time…" She glares with one eye open.

"Finally…" I said with an exasperated sigh, finally able to try the pacifistic approach... for the time being. "So, do you mind telling me how this 'magic' thing works? Because as of right now, it's clearly better than light, and I'd like to use it for the future fights I might have. Traveler knows what might happen to this place if the Vex get here and start playing with it..."

"On that note, guardian, I do detect residual 'magic' all around us. I think it might be like the light, where we need to draw it in somehow. She might know a way."

"I don't know. I just do it."

"Nevermind then. I guess it's just in her genetics to use this."

"Welp."

Sighing, I decided to go back to my previous question. "Do you at least know a place where I could learn it? Like say, a village?"

"Pfft, the humans there are even worse…" She then points to the top of the mountain. "You can try the shrine up there. There's a… Preeety? Preist? Priestess? Uh that, up there. She's a human and knows magic. And a…" Crino pauses for a second. "Goddess. Two."

I couldn't help but make a flat face. They probably just knew it instinctually too, and are just naturally powerful. And considering that The Traveler and The Darkness are the only actual gods, this is probably a native title. I mentally reasoned out her claim.

Deciding to not anger her again, and risk getting torn to shreds by a blizzard, I pretended to be set on walking to the shrine, making sure to turn around to look at her. "Thanks. Maybe you aren't that dumb." I lied a bit, before turning back around, not looking to see her reaction. As I walked, I looked back to make sure she wasn't watching or following me.

"Hey, where are you going?" She questions. Judging from her voice, she hadn't moved from her spot. Though what was very hard to miss was the long pause before her question.

"To find out about magic and learn where's the nearest human settlement. What else?" I responded back, confused about her sudden interest.

"Why though?"

"My job is to defend the innocent from those who'd wish harm upon them," I said back to her. "I don't care if they can't defend themselves for nothing. It's my job." Why is she following me?

"Oh, so like Reimu and Marisa?"

"Dunno who those are, but yeah," I said with a nod. "By any means necessary, I push back against the foes of humanity's enemies. And I most definitely need to learn this 'magic' now if I'm to pacify humans who'd rather hurt each other, much over for actually fighting the forces of darkness really..."

There was a scoff. "Danmaku doesn't really hurt…" I heard her mumbling. "And what are you talking about? Another incident?"

I gave her another flat look. "Light and darkness must've really not touched this world yet…" Shaking my head, I continued. "Well, let's just say I know a lot of bad guys that might come over here if they knew about this place. I'm just trying to prepare for them, and maybe bring the fight to them once I'm done setting up defenses."

"If you say so." She really didn't sound like she believed me on the whole 'outside forces to prepare for' bit, which didn't really surprise me. "By the way, Tengu live here. And they don't like outsiders. Just tell them you're going to the shrine and they let you through." She says as she gets ahead, showing that she was still flying. "Heck, I'll come with you!"

I blinked a bit.

"What's a Tengu?"

To say Remilia Scarlet was displeased would be the wrong thing to assume. In fact, she ended up being quite amused by the mossman's reaction.

Normally, she would've stepped in before he could run away after having witnessed him run out the gate, but it just seemed so… boorish to her. Unfair even, especially since the man moved at, to her standards, a snail's pace.

Yukari, after having stood by and witnessed it, apologized to her for such an inconvenience, stating she had recently found the dimension filled with the youkai-like humans the Hunter was from. She just cast her worries aside by stating she brought a good one anyhow, even with the minor damage done.

After she sent her off to find the human again, as well as the interloper she detected during that time, she looked to the woods for a few moments, muttering to herself. "Quite interesting…"

"Millady." She heard her head-maid Sakuya say, as she walked up behind her. "It is to my dismay that the human had managed to get away, despite being less familiar with the world than we are."

"He won't go far." She said dismissively. "He and his little diamond ball thing will come back on their own terms if they have any sense in them. After all, how does one expect to interact with the locals without having someone familiar with them?" She then smiled. "It's in their fate to do so. I don't even need to lift a finger for them to figure this out."

Sakuya nodded watching the forests whilst standing at Remilia's side.

"Still…" Remilia said aloud to herself, catching Sakuya's attention. "I wonder how he'll react to the local youkai? Some of them are known to eat humans after all."

"...He might survive."

"Oh?"

Sakuya stared at the forest with an intensity to her gaze. "He appears to be versatile in abilities. And the barriers didn't seem to affect him when he managed to escape, plus the hoverbike he had was decently fast."

"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking, Sakuya?" Remilia said with a knowing grin.

"...I would like to personally hunt him down and capture him, yes." Sakuya admitted. "If not to find out more about this human. He appears to hold prowess and technology that we have yet to achieve. And the mansion is in need of a butler."

Remilia hummed in thought for a few moments.

Then she grinned. "Go and fetch me the human, Sakuya."

Sakuya turned to look at her, surprise evident on her face.

"This so-called 'guardian' makes an interesting claim against me. That he can shape his own fate." Remilia said, taking a glass of blood wine from a fairy maid and sipping from it. "I would so love to see him try, if not to see him fall before me."