"Ehh?"
Nanoha blinked as her spell brought her to her destination, magic circles dissolving as she set down on the ground. Yeah, they'd said her mission was on an 'unusual' world. But...
"Ehhhhhhhhhh?!"
No one said it would be this!
"Anomaly detected. Unable to confirm horizon line. Conclusion: this world is flat."
The staff's announcement did not help the young brunette calm down. She spat her surprise right back at Raising Heart.
"That's not the only anomaly around here!"
"Sorry, my master."
"It's alright," she mumbled. "I got a little carried away. Honestly, though, what's with this place? Everything is so...square!"
'Square' was an understatement. The smallest solid pieces of...anything she could see looked to be a full cubic meter. Never had she been more thankful she could fly: having to jump half her height every time the terrain was anything but perfectly flat would have sent her right back to Midchilda.
While sensibly avoiding looking directly at it, she could confirm that the sun was a square, as well. The trees were made of the same cubic units as the dirt beneath her feet. Even the tallest grasses were still clearly locked to the meter-grid that this world seemed to follow.
The familiar telepathic voice of Chrono Harlaown brought her out of shock.
[I see you've arrived at the target world. Excellent.]
[You tricked me! No one said it was going to be...this!]
[We only learned how it looked ourselves moments ago. The barriers were blocking our scrying until you forced your way in.]
Nanoha's face sobered. [Oh, right...]
An hour ago, on the briefing room of the BNS Arthra...
A certain green-haired, deceptively friendly commanding officer sat her men and women down for a...well, briefing. Unlike certain other briefing rooms, this one was used for its intended purpose fairly regularly.
"Ahem. Now that everyone's here, let's begin the meeting, shall we? Amy, have you made any progress on the scrying?"
The object of her conversation simply frowned as an apology.
"Negative, ma'am. The barrier that separates this world from Dimensional Space still blocks all our sensors. We'll have to break in more...forcefully."
All eyes turned towards a certain angelic-looking brown-haired girl wearing blue eyes and a white coat.
"Anno...Does that mean you want me to...?" she stuttered, faltering under the attention.
"Yes." The original speaker, one Lindy Harlaown, smiled and continued. "We'll need you to open up the shield and teleport in on point, Nanoha. Once you've arrived, we'll send backup or extraction if what you find isn't friendly. Otherwise, you'll search for and seal whatever Lost Logia could have caused the dimensional tremor."
"Um...okay."
In hindsight, that was a dumb thing to say.
[..sorry, Chrono. I forgot.]
It seemed like he shook his head.
[Not important. Anyways, what's the environment like?]
Nanoha glanced towards her staff, but Raising Heart had already gotten the message.
[Atmospherics all green. Temperature and ambient light levels reading nominal, 16 degrees Centigrade. Ambient magic slightly higher than Midchildan standard maximum, but within safe range.]
No appearance of sentient life or its traces, yet the ambient magic level was higher than that of the capital of the Bureau, with all its magitechnological industry, transportation, and everything else. It certainly puzzled the people on the Arthra. Even Nanoha herself was a bit spooked.
And then, of course, there was the visually obvious. What was this place? The sheer blockiness and perfect angles of its terrain made it seem very artificial, yet who or what was the artificer? Why was it built and protected so if it had no inhabitants?
…
The people who were supposed to be on a mission again lapsed into thought. Their dillydallying did not last, however.
[Movement detected, 50 meters,] Raising Heart announced.
Nanoha found herself whipping around into a combat stance, pointing the staff of destruction at the offending area. A small stand of trees concealed what horrors lurked within.
An unrecognizable sound came out. Still, Nanoha stood transfixed as a shape seemed to appear in the shadow of those trees. She put up a barrier hastily, too busy panicking to take a good look at what it was.
Then the monster came out.
It was a pink, blocky, pixelated pig. It oinked.
Nanoha fell flat on her face.