Updating the second chapter before I update the rest of my stories. It will be a long way to go.

And if you haven't noticed, the bold words are kind-of spoilers, or crucial information in the story.

With that, enjoy chapter 2!

*Cough* *Cough* He opens his eyes to see a shadow with a blue background with his blurred vision. Rubbing his eyes to get the better view, he could see the thing being a column of smoke rising up under the blue sky. Looking at his hand, its skin has been burnt in a small part. And with that, he remembers what happened.

"The Fire Dragon…" A rare type flying around here. Must be its season or something… Though the damage… "Tuka!" He then remembers the one person he managed to get into safety. Slowly sitting up, he looks at his clothes to see them being torn and burnt at some points. But, that doesn't matter at that point. Putting his hands on the ground, he tries to push himself up, only to fall forward immediately. Grunting in pain, he lets his body lay there for a moment before his joints start to feel again. Then, with one good push, he stands up and balances himself. Seconds pass, and he slowly walks to the well, while examining the area around him. He grimaces at the scene. "They sure live up with their names." He mutters to himself, as he recalls what those creatures are capable of. One single creature of the species has burnt down the forest where his village was used to be, leaving death and destruction behind its breath of fire. But, compared to what that mad man was about to do, this is nothing.

Reaching the well, he looks down and tries to find his daughter, but, the only thing he sees is the water in the deep place. "Tuka?" Asking into the well, he really wants to hear the response. A few seconds pass… he calls the name again, but non one answers. "No…" He wants to jump in, to try and find the girl. However, before he does so, he notices the area around the well having water spreading out. Normally it's nothing worth to notice, however, the Fire of the Dragon was enough to vaporize any exposed water. Then, nearby it, a trail of something rolling out to the direction out of the village. Even though the trail's bigger than he could imagine, he could guess what it could be from. "A carriage…" He mutters to himself. Someone must have been nearby and seen the fire. Then, the water must be when they found Tuka and took her off the well. He smiled to himself. "At least she is safe…" Exhaustion starts invading his mind, and he drops to the ground, unconscious.

Hours later

He feels something wet covering his forehead when his mind starts to work again. Grunting a bit, he starts opening his eyes again…

"He's waking up." Someone walks to him with quiet steps, but he could define the voice being of a woman. Then, the person comes into view, and he could see what the woman… no, the girl looks like. An Elf girl, around his daughter's years of living, with features that makes him sense a striking familiar feeling towards his daughter. And her… well-developed body… "How are you feeling, mister?" The girl asks him with worry, and with that, he knows the girl is not his daughter.

"I… am… am I?" He grunts when the memories return. With that in his mind, he cannot convince himself that he's okay after that event.

"Do you remember your name?" One more comes into view, and this time she's a human girl with long pink hair and matching eyes. She's carrying a small note in her hand with a writer with the other.

He sits up with the help of the elf girl, and he answers: "Yes. My name is Hodor Marceau. Are you the one who found my daughter?"

The human girl shakes her head. "Sorry sir, but you're the only one alive we have found. But there was a group before us who might have found your daughter, but we don't know where that group has headed to."

"I… see." At least now he knows she's safe. Then, he asks: "Where are we?"

The elf girl answers: "We're at Rectus Hill… speaking of which, we haven't introduced ourselves. My name is Tiffania Westwood, and this is Compa."

"Nice to meet you!" The girl bows slightly. He nods back in return. "I would like to talk more, but we have a few troubles at the moment. If you need something, please ask Tiffa here. Bye bye!" And with that, the girl walks out of…wherever they are.

Now that he takes a good look around, he's sitting on a white bed, with his clothes replaced by a white outfit. There are a few more beds around, so he's assuming this place's for treating wounded or so. But, there are many items that he can't recognize, one of them is that light which looks like it's made of light magic. And the roof is just a big cloth of kind.

He then asks Tiffa: "Tiffa… isn't it?" She nods. "I don't remember there's a village of elves in Rectus Hill, not with human around…"

"Oh, you don't know? There's a portal opened and connected the hill with my friend's world." That makes him widen his eyes in shock. A gate has opened in this place?

"I thought the gate only opened in Alnus Hill?"

"There is one there as well, according to the captured."

'Captured, huh?' Definitely the Empire has taken the chance to conquer again. Served them right. "So you're trying to return the favor…"

"Well, our friends just want the ones who are responsible to take their responsibilities. They also want to help the people here, after hearing what the Empire has done to them."

He then steps out of the bed, which makes the girl step back a bit. "Thank you for helping me. But I need to find my daughter now. I don't know if she's in danger or not."

"And I can assure you that she's in good hands." A man walks into the room this time. "Your dead friends have told me who saved her."

That last sentence makes him raise his eyebrows. "Dead friends?"

"Let's just say I can speak to the dead. Anyway, the name's Kuro, and I need to talk with you about something."

He slowly nods. He has already prepared some spells, in case if things go wrong. But those spells are stopped as he hears the man speaking to Tiffa in a language he hasn't used for a long time. The girl nods and walks out of the place, leaving the two behind.

"You recognized it, didn't you?" Kuro asks Hodor in seriousness. "The language of your past?"

The elf nearly chokes in his own breath. There's no way it is happening. "You two… you two are from Halkeginia?"

The man shakes his head. "Only Tiffa. But, she's from a different Halkeginia than yours."

"Different Halkeginia?"

Kuro gestures Hodor to sit on the bed, while he takes a chair for himself. "You know about Gate being opened in different worlds, right? Your arrival seemed to be a little different, considering you were pulled from your world during a difficult time. We have checked your bio to check where your world was, and it's different than the one we have known." Letting a little moment for Hodor to take the news, Kuro continues: "Now, I know you're eager to find your daughter, but can you wait a bit? We're heading to Italica with its count in a few days. During that, we recommend you to recover here. You can go around and talk to our natives to know more about us."

"I… will consider that." He has no choices for now.

"Good. Maybe we should head out now." Kuro points his thumb to the exit. "The atmosphere here is not the best place to stay for too long."

…

"So, what do you think?" Tiffa asks in wonder. After the duo has left the 'field hospital' as Kuro called it, the man has asked Tiffa to give him a tour around the place. And needless to say, he's impressive. Despite being made in such a few days, the place has more to give than any fancy places of Empire could give out. Not like he saw many in the past. The tour ends with the moon rising up, and the two elves are standing on the roof of the place the younger elf's temporarily staying.

"Wonderful. Even when in my old world, I would have never thought I could see sights like this."

Tiffa giggles at his statement. "Then maybe some days you can ask Kuro to have a tour in his world. You will see more than here."

"I will keep it in my mind, thanks." Silence. "This Kuro… being in the same level as the Deities in Falmart… I would hardly believe that if I didn't see those images of him from the people here."

"He does act out of his position a lot, but that's why he's likeable. He's like a father to us all."

"People wouldn't think of it if they first met him. Also, your Halkeginia… Brimir is no longer affected the world?"

"Not exactly, but what he thought was wrong was brought out of light. It's just his jealous about us that he told about eradicating us. We all have evidences for it."

"Hearing that, even in different world, would make me be satisfied." … "You're not coming with us?"

"Kuro doesn't like a large group to go. But… one of our natives doesn't want to leave him be."

"I see." He then looks at the moon of Falmart. "I think it's late enough. Thank Kuro for me for saving me back then."

"Don't worry. It's his duty, after all."

Days later

Location: Italica

"How much longer do we have to wait for Fourth Combat Unit, Itami?"

"In a few minutes! Keep firing, and watch where you're shooting!"

After shouting the order, First Lieutenant Yoji Itami aims his rifle right at a bandit's head and pulls the trigger, blowing the man's head into pieces. He and Daisuke Tozu are assisting Shino Kuribayashi and Rory in dealing with the strayed bandits, while the later duo are enjoying their kills with their bayonet and axe. The rest of his team are stationing around the East Gate and trying to hold the bandits back until their heavy reinforcement comes. So far, the bandits' focus are on the melee-ing duo, completely ignoring the deadly leads coming to them from all sides.

And then, the missiles coming from Fourth Combat Unit enter the battlefield and hit the outside wall of East Gate, killing the bandits who are trying to climb inside of the place. With the Fire Fighters momentarily diverting their flying course, the helicopters hover up on the bandits' groups and the soldiers start shooting down, killing the enemies in the process. Snapping out of her shock to see the bandits starting to run away in fear, Pina has ordered the rest of the Italica Defenders to go forward and push the bandits away. In the princess' mind, she was glad that Italica was safe…

Not for long.

One of the Cobra has entered the scene and points the helicopter's gatling gun towards the wall. The pilot gives Itami the last warning before he pulls the trigger. However, before he could even do so, a large energy orb falls from the sky and hits the area just next to where he's planning to shoot, explodes into white light, causing him to cover his eyes with his left arm. Then, the light dies down, and the pilot lowers his arm down, and sees the destruction that one hit just caused. Then, to his and his comrades' surprise, two enormous dragons have touched down the ground, their mouths are heating up for a combination attack towards the bandits…

"MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Itami and Daisuke immediately grab Shino and Rory and try to run away from the dragons' potential attacks, however, both duos are immediately grabbed by a smaller blue dragon and then flown right into the inner wall. Not out of their shocks yet, they then got dropped into the ground, and Itami turns back to identify the dragon… only for his knowledge of otaku to kick up. "Wait a second… you look like…"

Then its rider jumps out of the dragon's back, and his suspicion has been confirmed. The rider is a woman in her earlier 20s, with short blue hair and eyes with red under rim glasses. White-blue dress with a black cloak that has an emblem tied on the collar of the dress, she holds a staff which signifies her as a mage. Her aura of calmness surrounds her, as she speaks the soldier: "You're quite lucky that he saw you up high, otherwise he could have blasted the orb into your place."

Snapping out of the daze, Rory points her pointy part of her axe towards the woman. "Hey, who are you to grab us like that?"

The mage's only answer is the thumb to the backside. And just in time for white light and fire blasting down from the outside of the gate to the running away bandits, completely reducing them into nothing. "If I didn't, you will feel that heat, and I'm sure the others are not going to be pleased with that."

Itami's comrades immediately rush to where the group is and point their guns towards the dragon and the mage. The dragon hisses, but the mage puts her hand on its neck and shakes her head, causing the dragon to whimper down. Itami shouts to his comrades: "Put the guns down! She's not our enemy!"

"How the hell are you so sure like that?" Shino stands up as well and puts her finger on the trigger of the gun.

"Just… I know her… well, enough, I guess?" That answer from Itami makes everyone sweatdrop in their minds.

"From an anime, am I right?" The mage asks back, causing the Itami to nod in surprise. "Don't worry, he told me about that, and I'm not surprised." She then turns back to see the attack has ceased. "Your comrades are waiting, and there are people who need to see you." The mage then jumps on the dragon's back, and the dragon flies up and heads outside.

"Itami…" Takeo Kurata asks his leader in surprise: "You said you knew her? From an anime?"

"Yes… at least, I think so. But this girl is older than the anime… so I'm not sure yet. But that dragon looks exactly the same in the anime."

"What looks exactly what?" Lelei and Tuka appear in the scene, as the former asks the leader of Third Recon.

"Eh… nothing for now. Let's go out and check on the casualties."

Pina, her soldiers and the defenders of Italica are marveled at the sight of the dragons. One of them is black with three red eyes staring down at them, its body is covered with miasma which withdraws into the body after the fight. The other is white in contrast with the first one, with its eyes looking at Fourth Combat Unit's helicopters, but it doesn't look like it's going to attack. Both of them easily cover up the entire East Side of the city, and Pina can't help but shivered at the thought of them attacking her and the people. Luckily, it's not the case since their aims were only at the runaway bandits. The marveling time is over, as Pina snaps out of her shock and orders people to start clearing up the battlefield, but herself is thinking about the scenario in front of her… and the after match.

"Dear Emroy, now this is brutal." Everyone immediately stops their work to turn to the direction of the voice, to see their assumed-dead count standing there with only a scar on his left eye. "This sure will take a lot to recover."

"COUNT FORMAL!" Everyone then bows down to their knees upon seeing him. In their wild dreams would they never think that he can return back to Italica, much less unharmed.

Even Pina is surprised about this, as she walks to the Count and asks: "Count Formal? Where have you been?"

Formal bows down slightly in apology: "Sorry Princess, and thank you for protecting my town. I was captured because of the enemies from the other world behind the gate. But the leaders there are generous enough for me to return here to check on my city. Later on we can get the prisoners back here in no time."

Third Recon, Lelei, Tuka and Rory have arrived at the scene and overheard the conversation. And along with them, Myui has come along, and bursts in tears when she sees her father. "FATHER?"

"Hey, my daughter! Come here!" And with no other words, the girl runs immediately to the Count for the hug. "I miss you so much, my dear girl."

The rest is smiling at the scene before them, even Shino is crying a little in private. Then, a hand places on Tuka's shoulder, making the elf to turn back and widen her eyes in surprise. "Hello my daughter, miss me?"

"Father?" With a nod of confirmation, Tuka hugs the man in question, tears start flowing out of her eyes in happiness. The man is wearing a smile, knowing that his fear is for nothing now.

Itami scratches his head in confusion, although he's also happy that: Italica's leader has returned, and the elf has found out another survivor which is her relative. Then, he hears the mage from before talking: "It seems our assumption is correct."

Lelei, being similar to the other mage, asks: "What do you mean?"

"Just like I said. When we took a map of Falmart, we found out that Italica is the nearest town from Alnus Hill. And since Colt Formal is from there, we decided to head directly there, so that Hodor could try to find his daughter as well. Two birds with one stone." Then she holds up two fingers in a 'V' signal, which is completely out of character combined with her emotionless face, and weird to Itami.

"I think we should stay in a better place for conversation, heh?" Count Formal calls everyone's attention to him. "Let's head to my place for some deals to make."

Itami then looks up to the dragons, whose sizes are way, WAY too big to be anywhere inside of the city. "Um… about them…" He points towards the dragons.

"Oh, right." The mage then looks up and orders. "Kuro, Chaos. Turn back. We're heading inside."

"Kuro/Chaos?" The Japanese people ask the former, and the others ask the later. Then, the two massive dragons burst in blue data into light orbs, then they reach the ground and form into two figures…

"KILLUA?" Both Itami and Kurata shout in surprise, before both of them rush to the boy and start looking over every corner of the boy, as they're asking if he's real.

"As entertaining as the scene you two are making here…" The other man suddenly teleports between the two soldiers and puts his hands on their shoulders, stopping them from 'harassing' the boy. "We're having a little problem here. And no, he's not the real Killua. I will explain later." Receiving a nod, Kuro retracts his hands. "Alright then. Let's go. You too, Illococoo."

A moment later

After having signed the treaty between JSDF and the Empire, Pina sighs in silence and then asks Kuro: "Well then, mister Kuro… about the treaty between our world and yours…"

Instead of answering the question, Kuro gestures for Colt to answer, who follows the order: "His deal is kind of the same with the last part of the first, the third and the forth condition." The Count then leans forward a bit. "Still, that one thing you're going to do is… a bit unfair if you're doing it for free, you know?"

Kuro just shrugs. "I have no reasons to keep them anyway. And I want to remove that prison as soon as possible."

"What are you two talking about?" Pina and everyone's clearly in the confusion, as she asks the Count.

"There is a second reason he took me with him here: To make sure Italica has a leader again… so that he could return the prisoners here… with zero conditions adding up to it."

Everyone hearing that turns to the fifth leader with utter disbelief on their faces. There's no way someone would willingly do so with their sane minds. However, Kuro is not someone to be easily argued against. "The fact that, aside from some buildings being destroyed, you haven't managed to kill any of my people, and we have killed many of yours already. Returning the living ones back with nothing gained back is at least I can do to respect the dead ones."

Itami asks back in surprise: "How did that happen? You were attacked without knowledge, right?"

Kuro: "For that… forgive me, Charlotte." He then pulls out a revolver, and immediately points it at the mage's head, and with no one being able to act fast enough to prevent the event, he pulls the trigger. Everyone is expecting that the girl's head will be blown off, however, the bullet is blocked by some kind of barrier."

Charlotte sighs. "There's no reason to apologize for that. You wouldn't willingly kill me anyway."

Kuro sighs back in relief and puts the gun back. Then he explains: "Let's just say we have back-up plans if attacks like before happened."

Rory is the most surprised one, considering she has never thought someone could make a method that prevents death for everyone. "So it works for everyone?"

Kuro: "Depends. Have to register them first. Anyway, that's it… or at least, I thought so before I came here." He closes his left eye, and when he opens it… a symbol appears in his left eye and spins around like crazy. "Might I ask if you could get me some… specific maids of yours?"

The room drops temperature a bit, even the Apostle of Emroy gets even unnerving at the coldness in the voice of the fifth leader. That affects the Count as well, and he asks out of fear: "D… So you want to buy some…"

The symbol suddenly disappears, and Kuro turns to his normal mode. "Sorry about that. It's just that… some of your maids are… were my friends. I just want to see them, that's all."

The Count quirks an eyebrow when he hears that. "Your friends? But you said that you never heard of our world before…"

"It seems that our waiting time is over, huh?" Two of the maids suddenly walk in the room, gaining their attentions. One of them is a cat maid, while the other is a human. The former then asks Kuro: "If what she told us is true, then you must have succeeded, right?"

"Well, it's…" Kuro temporarily stops to comprehend all the words. "She?"

"…K…Kuro…" Someone appears from behind cat maid's back. She's also wearing a maid outfit, however, her ways of moving are not of one. She has long black hair with black eyes, similar to…

Kuro instantly recognizes her. There's no reason for him to not knowing the person shaking before him. He takes a very, VERY deep breath… exhales… then asks: "May I ask… How did you get here?"

"The… invasion…" With teary eyes, the girl can barely talk with her emotions mixing right now.

With just two words, he immediately understands. Sighing again, Kuro walks to the girl, with the maids walking aside, and he hugs the girl, and with that the girl bursts out crying loudly, tears coming out like streams. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here now. You're safe."

None of them says a word, as they feel something… heartbreaking in the scene. Except Charlotte, who understands what's going on, and she asks the cat maid: "How long has she been here?"

"Three weeks. It has been quite a hard time for her." She answers. "Luckily she mentioned his name, otherwise we wouldn't know who she is."

Charlotte nods. "I met her before." She then turns to Colt. "It seems our treaty has been altered a bit, count Formal. We would like…"

"To thank your clan for saving her." Kuro's words interrupt the mage's words. "I guess keeping you all alive is a good choice."

"Okay, hold on!" Literally everyone is too confused, and Itami voices it out: "What's going on here? I know it's emotional, but can somebody explain who that girl is?"

The human maid bluntly answers: "She's from your Earth… and she's Kuro's younger sister."

Chapter 2 end!

This chapter is for building up the tension of events afterwards. Also, this story is connected to my main timeline, but you don't have to read my previous stories to fully understand this one. Although, if you want to, then they are there for you.

With that, I will truly end this chapter. See you in the next ones!