In the soft blow of the cool winds of the forest, Ryder and the cat were standing, before the white wall. Unexpectedly, the wall wasn’t visible to the cat. It couldn’t access the black world unlike him. Though, the white wall wasn’t constantly under Ryder’s view either. It appeared and then disappeared – twinkling.


    “Young prophet,” The cat said, looking towards Ryder with gleaming eyes and an innocent smile, “stand back a bit. You can also memorize the chant. You look…” It tilted its head, as it temporarily clutched its beard, as if he thinks not from the brain, but his beard, “You look enough Zorian, mi lord. Just change your dialect like this.” It meowed, as it tensed its throat, spitting out, “Whatcha’ doin?”


    It relaxed its throat again, “See, Se?or, like this.”


    Then, it turned in the direction of the white wall. It didn’t see it, but it seemed it had memorized enough to know its direction.


    “Tur-awn-o de Ae-umeo-ro de P-alal-a-nimolo-mo” It started chanting, stretching its tongue out, twisting its tongue in the air, as if dancing with it. It clasped its palms together, gradually getting down to its knees. It kept on chanting in this mysteriously twisted manner, as if the tongue was twisting the air to generate words.


    Like something cracked, a power that was just… beyond, flashed white light throughout – humongous, as if it’d cover the whole earth. Ryder’s eyes instinctively flared, and his heart lost its rhythm. In the black world, the colors that constantly twitched stopped, as if the flow of time had halted. Then, a white portal, sizzling with a power of its own, appeared in front of them.


    Ryder could watch this portal with both – his right and left eye. The cat, which was crouching, almost ready to bawl, after the prayer, sniffled, controlling itself. It politely bowed, gesturing for Ryder to move through, “Se?or, you should take the first foot.”


    Ryder, not being able to comprehend just the sheer amount of energy he could feel, sizzling in it. His black world gave him sharp instincts to energy. The sheer amount of godly, and encompassing energy he could sense, was stumping him. He did not know if he should move inside, or bow down respecting it, or maybe, just run away.


    After his transformation, he had almost stopped feeling the fear. This was the first time he was reminded of the feeling again. When the knees feel hollow, and the hands don’t dare to lift.


    Ryder gulped, as mindlessly bobbed his neck to the cat, and walked to the portal. He glanced at the cat again, who was just casually smiling. The same stupid smile. And then, he held his breath and leapt inside.


    The world around him warped. Who, what, how, when… he lost the sense of it all. He could physically feel his body stretch like a string, and then compress. He was flying somewhere. Aimlessly, yet he was moving forward at insane speed. He couldn’t see anything around him, except a veil of darkness, with grids of a white net all around him. He couldn’t help himself, but scream.


    When the fever-dream tunnel ended, he was just plopped down. The sky opened a portal, and he was thrown down. He couldn’t react, even open his eyes, and he was already falling down. When he barely opened his eyes, his head feeling hollow. His back smashed with a solid, wooden structure. With the collision, he broke it, and came falling down further, smashing floors after floors. He stopped, as he landed on concrete, and blood flowed out of his head.


    Ryder didn’t feel much pain. His eyes groggily opened, to a sight of a vivid open sky, visible through the broken wooden floors. The scene snapped him back to reality, as he hurried up, and looked around. There were monstrous, humanoid beasts, everywhere. A bullman, a cowgirl, or a sparrowman, they were all there – especially the bullman. They were literally everywhere in this broken tavern.


    Yet, not every humanoid beast had a similar look. They were all quite distinct. Most of them looked almost human, except for a horn, or a tail. Some had their head replaced, some their legs, or just looked like beastmen.


    Ryder’s eyes instinctively scanned the black world, and they were all twitching colors. But they had a hint of white color in the middle of their colors. In some, a bit more, in some a bit less.


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    Before Ryder could finish his world-viewing, he heard hunky thumping on the wooden floor. In the black world, he saw several colors marching towards him – almost in a formation.


    He swiftly got up, and turned around. The dagger was surprisingly still in his hand, as he rolled it into an ice-pick grip. He noted the men running towards him were dressed in similar clothing, perhaps uniforms. It appeared to be like red Karate Gi, with a metallic breastplate over.


    They all wielded swords, as the tall, bearded beastman standing at the front, leading them, pointed his sword at him.


    “Who are you? And how dare you cause a commotion in La Devora, under the protection of royal guards.” His beastly ears twitched, as he spoke. He looked back, and gestured to the soldiers, to capture Ryder.


    What the fuck do I do now? If I start speaking in my stupid tongue… fuck that.


    Ryder''s face tensed seeing two armed, beastmen walking towards him, glaring. He instinctively pulled his palm up, gesturing them to stop, and they did. They tensed up. Their knees were bent, and they held their stance, as if they were ready to pounce forward, hacking with the sword.


    Fuck they are trained!


    Ryder didn’t speak. He didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of these beastmen, who had a perfectly clear speech. Heck, they all looked way more humane than him.


    Girls would find these dudes attractive... At least much more than me.


    Ryder internally sighed, as he brandished his dagger to the soldiers. The curvy dagger, he got from looting the cat. He didn’t know if the crimson-red flame etched into that beautiful piece of work, would work for, or against. But he just gave it a try.


    The guards saw the beautiful design of crimson fire, etched into the metallic dagger. Ryder pointed at the design, and then pointed at him, “My blade, dumbasses.”


    I do definitely seek death at times.


    “Zorian,” The leader mumbled to himself, as he snapped, “Guards, kill him, it’s a Zorian.”


    Woh! Woh! Woh!


    The two guards instantly hacked at him. The people around were casually drinking till they heard the word Zorian, and panic erupted.


    “O Queen of heavens! A Zorian!?” A bunny girl wagged her tail, clutching onto the desk.


    A couple of beastmen, and beastwomen, choked on their wine. They flung their fork on the plate, and ran, holding their gowns, or straining in their leather pants.


    “Mask up, citizens!” One of the guards announced, “This dirty beast will infect you! We will deal with this!”


    As the guard completed the announcement, he rushed to join the rest of the guards, continuing to corner Ryder. The two guards taking the lead hadn’t landed a hit yet, but all Ryder could do was dodge, parry or back off.


    Fuck, I’ll loose like this.


    Ryder stepped to the right, as the guard attacked, projecting the sword from the top of his head. Ryder met the sword with his dagger, and slid it to the left. The guard’s momentum caused the guard to lose balance, as the sword landed straight on the floor.


    Before Ryder could attack the guard, two other guards stepped in, both of their swords ready to pierce Ryder’s chest. He swiftly stepped back, but one of the guards twisted his shoulder enough to let the tip pierce through Ryder’s right peck.


    The back of his shirt was already dripping with blood from his head injury. Now, blotches of blood started to cover the fabric over his chest. The guards, obviously, didn’t stop, and marched in further. Three guards dashed in, lifting their swords ready to charge them down.


    The ruthless attacks from the guard were a clear attempt at elimination. If Ryder were to lose, he wouldn’t be captured. He’d soon be seeing the world upside down, his head lying on the floor.


    His normal sight just wasn’t cutting it out, so as a last call for survival, he intuitively decided to give all the focus on the black world. He stared at the black world, almost completely losing the sense of the world of forms.


    His eyes didn’t blink, his breath wasn’t ragged – it stopped. As the three guards collectively striked down, he saw the white light flash. First, the white light flashed for the guard on the left, and Ryder just stepped it.


    Not exactly knowing what he was doing, running all on gut, he attacked exactly at the time, the white light was dimming – about to vanish. A flash resounded at the collision of the sword and the dagger, and the guard''s sword was sliced in half. Ryder didn’t think, and just pushed in. The guard was too surprised to react, as he met his end, when Ryder pushed the dagger down his neck.


    The white light flashed for another guard, and Ryder just stepped in with his footwork. Again, just as the light was about to disappear Ryder attacked and the slice perfectly cut through the sword. It hacked the hand of the guard, along with it.


    The other guards rushed in, but all happened too quickly. The third guard, who was already hacking down, hesitated. His eyes dilated, and the tips of his sword trembling. Ryder was zoned in, about to cut his neck down. But suddenly, his senses alerted him.


    The leader stepped in, and Ryder had realized a bit too late. He dodged, but not enough, as the sword went a clean strike to his forearm, effortlessly slicing through it. It left a burning sensation, and his hand along with the dagger, fell to the ground.