We approach the corner where Dr. Keyser’s dust lies.


    Bailey crumples to his knees, a choked sob escaping him. “Master Keyser… I finally found you… after all this time…” His voice cracks, tears streaming down his face. “But… you’re… gone…” He buries his face in his hands. He looks utterly heartbroken.


    I stay with Bailey for a long while. Eventually, the worst of his grief subsides, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.


    You will see him again… eventually… I think, though I keep the thought to myself. Death is a tricky subject, especially when you’ve glimpsed what might lie beyond.


    Bailey carefully gathers all the dust into a prepared vase. He carries the vase to a secluded corner, digs a small hole, and gently places it inside. “Rest easy, Master… Thank you… for everything,” he whispers, his voice thick with emotion.


    After everything, Bailey and I survey the wreckage of broken machinery. “Blimey,” Bailey says, shaking his head in astonishment. “This is something else entirely. This technology… it’s far beyond anything I’ve ever encountered.” He looks around, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and bewilderment.


    I show him a couple of books that had been indecipherable before. The strange symbols now seem to shimmer slightly, as if eager to be read.


    “These look like Mesoselenian. If I’m not mistaken… they might be about magic,” Bailey says, running his fingers lightly across the texts. He peers at the pages, his brow furrowed in concentration. “Definitely not your run-of-the-mill instruction manuals.


    “What is magic in this world?” I ask, the question finally bubbling to the surface. Bailey had mentioned it before, and the thought keeps nagging at me: maybe magic is the key to getting my consciousness unstuck from this body.


    Bailey explains that humans are magically inept. Stone cold zero. Zilch. The Mesoselenians, on the other hand, can wiggle their fingers and produce some minor magical effects using adamantine. Which, he adds, is precisely why they’re kept far, far away from any adamantine mines.


    Apparently, their magic is fairly basic—physical enhancements, a bit of elemental fiddling—nothing that even comes close to what human technology can do these days.


    With adamantine being rarer than gold and more valuable than, well, pretty much everything, even the Mesoselenians mostly stick to human tech. They’re even starting to branch out and make their own technological advancements, which they generously share with humans. Magic is only trotted out for special occasions—traditional ceremonies, dire emergencies, and the like.


    The Annunaki, though… Apparently, they’re the real deal. They’re the only ones who can truly wield magic. Although Bailey’s never seen it firsthand, legends paint a picture of feats that bend, break, and outright ignore the laws of physics and reality.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    “What you can do…” Bailey says, his brow furrowing with concern. “It isn’t something you see every day. It goes against… well, everything. The Annunaki… they wouldn’t take kindly to something like that. They might… want to take a very close look,” he adds, his voice laced with worry.


    Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble…


    Another earthquake hits, and this one’s a doozy. The cracks in the ground widen into gaping chasms.


    “RUN!” I yell, grabbing Bailey by the arm and hauling him towards the gate. We’re almost there when the ground beneath us decides to stage a disappearing act.


    This stupid isekai! Seriously? Talk about a cliché plot line!


    “Ahhhh!!!!!!” We’re suddenly weightless, plummeting into the abyss.


    Normally in novels, there’d be a conveniently placed lake or something to cushion our fall.


    I glance down. Nope. Just solid rock rushing up to meet us. I yank the screaming Bailey closer, pulling him on top of me. I’m not sure how much fall damage I’d take, but I’m fairly certain Bailey won’t survive this without some… emergency cushioning.


    I hug him close. The instant before impact, I push Bailey upwards with every ounce of strength in my hands and feet. My body slams into the unforgiving rock below.


    Crash!


    I land squarely on my back, creating a small crater. Yet, still no pain. And I’m still conscious.


    Huh. That was a weird experience.


    Bailey flies up a short distance before landing on his stomach with a soft oof. He’s not badly injured, just fainted from the sheer terror of it all. I grab him by the torso and scramble to the side, dodging the rocks raining down around us. The earthquake finally stops.


    I lean against a wall, cursing internally. All that, and not a single scratch. Even the rocks crumble to dust when they land.


    What gives? Seriously, this is getting ridiculous.


    After a moment, Bailey’s eyelids flutter open.


    “That was… close,” I say, helping him sit up a little.


    “Thank… thank you… I… I truly thought… that was it…” Bailey gasps, clutching his chest. His hands tremble. “How… how did you…? My life… I… I owe you… I don’t know how I can ever repay you… thank you…”


    It takes him a while to recover. He’s understandably shaken by the near-death experience.


    I pat him on the shoulder. “I could really go for a good meal when we’re out of here.”


    Pushing myself to my feet, I glance back up the way we fell. “Yeah, that was a pretty rough landing. Glad that’s over.”


    Once Bailey’s finally over the worst of the shock, he pulls out a handheld device. A bright light illuminates the area.


    “We’re… a good few hundred meters down, at least. The air’s breathable, thankfully,” Bailey says, his hand steady as he points the small device around the chamber.


    “There’s gotta be a way out. Just… hoping we don’t get another one of those shakes.” He nods towards a faint draft. “Seems like the air’s movin’ this way. Let’s head that direction.”


    Is he Doraemon? Come to think of it, he kinda looks like him too.


    I trail closely behind Bailey. “Cool gadgets. You wouldn’t happen to have a flying drone to scope this place out?”


    “I ain’t got the coin for somethin’ that fancy, that’s for sure. But I wasn’t intendin’ to end up as critter feed out here, so I took a few precautions. Glad nothin’ got smashed in that tumble.” Bailey leads us forward, and a blue glow suddenly spills out from ahead.


    Up close, the glow emanates from a substance coating a large patch of the cave floor.


    It looks like someone spilled a bucket of luminescent goo.