..Fly Me to the Moon...

"You know, I'm happy that I finally finished the Warthog… but now in hindsight, with Everest, I'm not sure if we even need to use it."

"Why's that?"

"Because in terms of getting from place to place faster, flying is a much quicker means of doing so. But then again, who knows how long this guy can fly for." Aurdel gave a good pat to Everest's side, the Griffin currently eating a bucket full of fish.

"He should go far, he looks strong. Like you," Yunyun's face turned a little red saying that.

"Heh, thanks." He turned back around, stroking the Griffin's head, "But you know, something feels off."

"What does?"

"The fact that we haven't run into any Demon King bosses recently, it's odd."

"Well, we did run into those enemies when we went to the capital to rescue you."

"That's true, but he wasn't a full fledged General. From what you said Six told you, it was only a Commander. For some reason they didn't send one of their high ranking leaders, despite them having done so with every other attack on a city."

"You're… you're right. That is strange. Maybe they didn't want to send a General because they knew that you were there?"

"Could be, but that would imply they have spies inside city walls and that's another issue in itself." He stroked Everest's wings, "Anyways, it was just something I had on my mind."

"Is there anything else on your mind? I think it's nice to hear what you have to say."

He thought for a moment, "Well, I did have the thought that you might look really nice if you let your hair down."

"R-really?" Her face turned red as she touched the ribbons in her hair, undoing them. With it her long hair was able to flow freely, draping down and around her shoulder. "W-what do you think?"

"I was right, it does look nice," and he gave a smile. She walked over and leaned on him, placing her head on his chest. They stood quietly, listening to everything around them.

"Maybe… maybe we could go somewhere? Just the two of us-?" Yunyun was in the middle of saying something when she was interrupted by Anatalia, sprinting as quickly as she could back towards the mansion from the town.

"Anatalia? What's wrong?" He asked, she skidded to a halt on the path in front of the mansion.

"I think I found a lead on where my sister might be!" She quickly spit out, "We need to leave, now!"

"Calm down, we won't go anywhere if you don't explain everything to us. We're willing to help you find your sister but we just need to know everything before we go." Her tail was violently wagging behind her and her ears were pointed straight up, but she took a deep breath and exhaled to calm herself down.

"I told you how I got my sister out of the country, right?"

"Yeah, you did. You paid someone to teleport her away. But you don't know where they teleported her away to."

"That's right, and after that I thought he teleported out of the country too. But I found out that there was someone who used them to teleport here not long ago. That means-"

"That means that he might still be in the country, and you want to go there to see if you can find him and get him to tell you where he teleported your sister off to." She nodded. "But didn't you say that all ways of getting to that continent are unavailable? No one wants to teleport there and no ships want to go there either?"

"That's right, but I figured that with Everest here we'd be able to fly there." Fly there? He looked at the Griffin, could he really handle flying such a long distance? He knew that he had an extreme amount of stamina given how long he and the Manticore had been fighting, but it didn't seem likely that he could do trans-continental flights.

"I suppose we can try, it's not like we all have to go at once as to reduce the load on him. Me and Yunyun will go ahead and set a teleport point, then we'll come back here and bring everyone with us on the next teleport."

"Thanks Aurdel," Anatalia looked happy, she bowed her head.

"By the way, is there anything else I should know? I want to know if there's anything important going on before we leave for this place."

"Well the country is called Siberas, and I already told you that there's a civil war going on. It's over Giants called Hyperboreans. But besides that there's really not a lot to tell you." She paused, "Oh wait, there was what I just read in the newspaper today too."

"What was it?"

"For some reason a lot of things tend to fall into our country, from space. There's even this huge metal building thing that fell into our country a long time ago, I even explored it."

"That's neat and all, but where is this going?"

"Apparently something fell into the country again recently, into the north where I'm from." Fall from space… recently… Oh, crap. "Aurdel, what's that look on your face?"

"Oh, it's nothing." But it wasn't nothing. The reason he had a visible reaction was because when they'd made the trip back to Earth, he'd brought a list of requests with him that he planned to give to Clementine.

After that she would hand them off to someone he was close friends with, who would be able to get them done. Part of that request was to attempt to send over a prefab that he'd detailed. That's why he'd been studying the stars and other maps that he knew practically by heart to come up with the perfect slipspace trajectory in order to get it to him. However it seemed that either one of two things had occurred. One, he'd made a mistake in his calculations. That was very much possible given the calculations he'd done in an attempt to get it here, almost nothing like it had been done before. Not to mention he was involving the use of wormholes he'd never personally gone through before which in itself was extremely risky. But given what he was working with it was very possible that the timing was incorrect and as a result arrived at a different point in time than what was intended.

The other possibility was that some external force had acted and thrown it off the correct path, something that was also very likely given his lack of knowledge of occurrences outside of this planet. Hell, for all he knew it could've been intercepted by the Covenant and they hitched a ride here with the prefab. The former idea was disheartening, the latter was worrying. The last thing he needed to do was to bring a twenty seven long war that had taken the lives of billions to a world where many had already died in another war against and unending foe. "Right, I suppose we should get ready. Anatalia, can you tell others about this? I want to make sure they know before we leave."

"Got it boss man," she entered the mansion with a grin on her face.

"Are we really going to go ahead by ourselves?" Yunyun asked, tilting her head up towards his head.

"Sure, it wouldn't hurt to do. Besides, it might be nice to spend some time together." He put a hand around her and pulled her closer. "By the way, can I ask you to teach me teleport? I won't let anything happen to you, but I want to make sure we're safe just in case."


Aurdel went into town, he probably wouldn't see it for a while so he both wanted to take one look around and check if there might be anything he needs for their trip. Though he knew for sure that one thing he needed was a saddle for Everest. He didn't exactly know if there were any saddles made for Griffins though, they didn't exactly seem like the type of animal to have widespread support for. Worse comes to worst he could give an attempt at making a saddle, it's not like he was entirely incapable of tailoring or doing leatherwork. A few civilians and adventurers that recognized him waved and said hello as he walked through the town. He greeted them back. It was easy to forget that technically, these were his people.

No matter what had actually happened or what Aurdel thought Maxwell had caused him to usurp Alderp's entire house, something hadn't exactly been on his itinerary. There wasn't much he could do about it now. But what he was expecting was some form of anti-corruption or anti-duress investigation, to make sure he hadn't simply threatened Alderp into handing it over. What they would exactly disprove or prove he didn't know but that was an issue for another day. "Is this the second time that I've come in and found you having attacked Wiz?"

"Thou would be correct, moi has punished this impoverished shopkeeper once more for sending us back into debt. No matter moi efforts she manages to find more useless magic items to purchase that she cannot afford. Perhaps thou could purchase some of those items to alleviate moi's debts."

"Right… is there anything particularly useful?"

"Moi would not be sure, from what I've heard you find use in the useless." Somehow he felt like that applied to more than just magic items. "Moi has a magic canceller, it will temporarily remove the magic of those it targets but also from those that use it." That was… relatively useful. Though that certainly was a downside for it to have. "Another item moi has is a pair of cursed gloves. Touching the door of any handle will unlock it, but thou will have the stability of thou's Crusader in terms of battle." Having a skeleton key was useful, but hitting like Darkness wasn't. He was slightly less inclined to buy that one.
"Does it work on more than doors?"

"No, only on doors." Then it was slightly more limited than he would have hoped, it could only open doors. He didn't need it anyways, he had Anatalia who was a thief and that was enough.

"Is there anything else?"

"Moi has this set of potions," Vanir hefted up a box, "Supposedly half have the chance to give a great buff to one stat but the other half will kill, moi is willing to sell this at half price."

"I don't think that'd be worth the trade even if it was free."

"Then the only thing else moi has to offer is this crude magic barrier device," Vanir pulled something out of a burlap sack. "To activate it and continue projecting it, one must pour mana into it. But the amount is too much for most and would simply cause them to collapse within moments." Eh, he could use it. He didn't exactly have average or below average amounts of mana compared to other people.

"I'll take the magic canceller and the barrier, but please find a better way to show Wiz that the items she buys aren't the best."

"Moi is not entirely sure if there is another way, and is open to suggestions." And with that he left the magic item shop, the debt burdened by the Archdevil slightly less heavy.

The next place that he was going to stop by the was guild since he hadn't particularly visited very often recently. He walked up to the doors and pushed them open, "Where have you been?" Luna said, practically in his face. "You've been gone for so long, you barely even come here anymore! Did I do something?" What was with this attitude…?

He put his hands up, "No, no one did anything. I'm just been really busy as of late, that's all. Too many things all at once. That's actually why I decided to swing by, I'm going to be travelling far again."
"Eh? Again so soon?! How long?" Why exactly did she care so much if he was gone? He understood that now he was technically the town's lord and that he'd done a lot for it previously, but it wasn't enough to give reason to figure out every detail about him leaving.

"I don't know, a few days? Maybe a week? Depends on how things go, I haven't exactly seen how things are on the other continent and I don't know how long the trip will take."

"Oh you can't go then, it's too dangerous!"

He put a hand on both of her shoulders, "Look, I'm going. I promised Anatalia that I would help look for her sister, so I'm going to help look for her sister."

"I… I see…" She sounded a little disappointed saying that, as if she'd considered convincing him to do otherwise.

"Look, I'll be safe so don't worry about me. Just focus on things here and everything is going to go smoothly." He thought for a moment. "But don't overdo it, you don't have to do everything by yourself. Okay?"
"Okay," she seemed a little more reasonable now.

"By the way, do you have any maps I can borrow? I don't exactly know the way there."


"Stay safe you two, we'll be waiting until you come back," Darkness said.

"Yeah, and don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Aqua, normally that would warrant a 'What's that supposed to mean?' But all I can say is why would I ever want to do what you do?"

"You shitty old man!" Aqua ran up to try and attack him, but Everest just wiped her away with his wing.

"Please do hurry," Anatalia said, "I don't want to lose the chance to find my sister."

"We'll go as fast as we can, I promise." Megumin wasn't the only one who didn't say anything, though clearly there was something on her mind. The look on her face said that much. But if she wasn't willing to say it then he wouldn't force her.

"Do you know which way you're going?" Darkness asked.

"I do,"he pulled the map out of a bag, then carefully put it back in. "We shouldn't get lost as long as nothing ambushes us. It should be less of an issue when we get over the sea than while we're over land, though I'm not exactly expecting something like a Dragon to ambush us." Yunyun walked up to him and handed him a few sacks full of things, he tied them to the saddle. Because of the distance they were travelling they wanted to travel light, as not to overexert Everest, but there were some necessities they needed to bring with them. Simple things like food, water, changes of clothes and weapons. This time around he was coming better equipped. With him was his sword, a shield, his combat knife, several frag grenades and an SRS99-AM rifle with a case full of rounds. Nothing would get in his way.

He pulled Yunyun up onto Everest. She was wearing a more weather appropriate version of her usual sets of clothes, with thick winter stockings, her usually exposed chest covered up and a fur coat he'd made using leftovers pelts he had laying around. He himself was dressed quite warm as he didn't know how much the climate would change the further they went. "Well there's no time to waste, hyah!" He gave a give to Everest, who gave a squawk and reared. Then they took off. They flew high up into the sky, and Aurdel looked down below. First they passed over the mansion, then over Axel, then over the abandoned castle outside of town and finally over the unending grassy plains that surrounded it. Before he'd thought he wouldn't appreciate the view from high up, given how many times he'd flown in aircraft before, but now it was different, he was able to take it all in. Yunyun was able to take in the sights too, he didn't have to look at her to be able to tell she was thrilled.

Her arms were around his waist, tight but relaxed, and was leaning against his back, it reminded him of the past. From above they were able to see all manner of things. Caravans filled with carriages of goods and people, a group of lizards running along, giant frogs hopping around, flights of birds minding their own business, farmers waving to them from below and many more. It really was a sight to behold. They flew for hours and each moment they found something new. "Aurdel, have you ever done anything like this before?"

"Sure have, a few times in fact." There was one time in particular he remembered. "I was off duty and Clementine hired someone to look after Aric, so we had the freedom to go for a night on the town. We went out to eat, to drink, to dance. All of it. And I think it was the most fun we'd had in our lives. But the thing I remember most was what we did at the end. In hindsight it was completely unsafe, but we managed to sneak into a nearby base and got into the airfield. From there we 'borrowed' one of the Longswords and flew around the continent. Normally something like that wasn't really exciting, but experiencing it with another person made it a whole other experience."

"That sounds really nice, do you think we could do something like that sometime?"

"Sure, we can do whatever you want." Aurdel looked out into the distance, "Hey, look ahead" Yunyun turned her head, the sun was setting behind a mountain. It was breathtaking.

But it also meant they should probably stop for the day, as it was bad to fly at night. Sure it was entirely possible that Everest could handle flying in the dark but he didn't want to take the risk. So he made him slow down, Everest understood the order and began to fly downwards. The place they set down was on the inside of a small bay, walled off by rock faces. He stepped off of Everest's back and helped Yunyun down, the Griffin rested on the still warm sand. He untied one of the bags and opened it up, pulling out two sets of bedding and laying them out. After that he set up a small fire to cook some dinner, making what was essentially hot pot for them and tossing fish to Everest. After that he put out the fire, Yunyun ended up moving her bedding closer to his and the two of them fell asleep.

...Beyond the Sea...

"Megumin, why are you pacing around so much? Do you think they are going to get attacked on the way there?"

"No, it's because he only went with Yunyun."

"She is the only one of us that knows teleport, it makes sense."

"Sure it makes sense, but that doesn't make it right."

"I'm not sure I follow…" Darkness was confused by Megumin's words.

"It sounds to me like someone is jealous," Anatalia teased.

"J-jealous?! What reason would I have to be jealous of Yunyun?! I'm clearly the superior Archwizard in every way!" She seemed a little flustered, but collected herself. "Clearly I should have gone with him to wipe out any large monsters he might encounter, no doubt with only Yunyun he'd struggle in such an encounter."

"Really now?" Anatalia stretches herself out on the couch and rested her head on the armrest, having essentially kicked Aqua off of it. "You're not jealous of the fact that she's the one with him and you're not?"

"I-I am not!"

"Yes you are, it's all on your face. I can read it like a book!"

"It is not! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" She pulled her hat down over her face.

"What are you guys teasing Megumin about? I want to join in," Aqua said suddenly paying attention.

"Oh it's nothing, go back to that egg of yours before I turn it into tomorrow's breakfast," Aqua shielded the egg she'd bought with her arms.

"If you do anything to my baby you'll receive divine retribution!" Anatalia just chuckled.

"But don't worry, my lips are tight. I won't say a word." She stretched out again, her tail swaying around as Chomusuke batted it around. "But if you really are worried about it then you should do something, nothing gets done if just lay around."

"Plenty of things get done if you just lay around! How do you think I get Aurdel to pay off my debts? By the way I still want to know what you're all talking about."

"But do stuff like what? I don't even know where to begin."

"Do things that he likes. That's easy, right?"

"I don't think he's ever told us what he likes…"

"That's not true," Darkness said, putting down the paper that she was reading. "Aurdel likes… likes... " Her mind was blank, "I can't come up with anything he likes."

"Ah, I suppose that might be a problem. Then maybe we can come up with something, something new."

"Is everyone going to ignore me?! Tell me what's going on!"

"But let's do it after we find my sister, I still think that takes priority over this."

"You're all going to receive divine retribution for- WAAAAAAH!" Aqua suddenly screamed as Anatalia glared at her, causing Chomusuke to pounce on her face


Aurdel was, for lack of a better word, preoccupied. What he was preoccupied with was helping fight off a small invasion of sea creatures. The sea creatures themselves, however, were not small. The 'battle' was taking place on an island that was in the middle of their route to Siberas, with several boats out on the water and a large amount of people fighting on land. Those that were fighting on land were dealing with rather large crabs, one with giant pincers that could easily fit around a man's leg and cut it off. But in his personal opinion it was better for those people to be fighting those crabs than out on the water. Mostly because…

The Sea Serpent let out a ferocious roar, diving into the water before coming back up through a ship, ""Scatter the ships!" He shouted down towards those down below, the men rushing to do as he said. Those that had fallen into the water from the destroyed ships were devoured instantly by the Serpent, they'd have to be recovered after it was defeated.

"Yunyun, can you try and break the armor around it's head? I want to see if I can get in a hit with my rifle, it should be a lot easier to take down if it can see."

"I'll try, Light of Saber!" Yunyun cast her spell onto the Sea Serpent, cutting through one of its horns. But it didn't cut through its head, only leaving a large mark on its armor-like helmet. Aurdel forced Everest to go up quickly as the Sea Serpent leapt up from the water and towards them, it's jaws missing them. A large spray of water came up as it dove back into the water. The reason that he was dealing with the serpent rather than the crabs was because he thought that people on this island were incapable of doing it. Had they mages or some form of ballistae then either one would be fair game, but he'd seen none of that. Most of the people he'd seen from above seemed to only be using swords, spears and axes, not even a single bow among them all.

Regardless someone would need to do it, and he figured that it would be him and Yunyun. "Alright, try again!"

"Light of Saber!" Yunyun used her spell again as the Sea Serpent came up, this time it left a much bigger impact. A large crack formed in the middle of its head, and it let out a roar. It began to move and spin violently in the water, large waves began to form and move towards the village that sat on the coast. This was bad. He broke off from the Sea Serpent as it went off to destroy another ship, taking Everest over the approaching waves. "Highness Freeze Gust!" Yunyun let out a large blast of magic, freezing the waves on their approach. They stood as solid ice walls facing the village, looming over the docks. The water that hadn't been frozen was much reduced and as a result didn't damage the village, only wiping out some of those that were on shore instead. As they turned the Sea Serpent had begun going after another ship.

It crashed through the bow of the wooden vessel, causing it to lurch forward. Barrels rolled off its deck and into the water with some of its crew. Then he saw three men with spears gather on the sinking ship, they seemed to huddle around and agree on something. Then, they ran towards the side of the ship where the Sea Serpent was approaching from. The three men leapt into the air as it opened its jaw and plunged their spears into the roof of its mouth, wedging it open. Then they jumped away as it sat and squealed in pain, thrashing it's head around. They'd given them an opening. "Yunyun!"

"Fireball! Meteor!" First she flung in a fireball, burning the inside of its mouth with the flames. Then she followed up with a large rock that pounded the burnt area, causing it to scream in further pain. It lowered it's head, putting it into a better position to be struck by her spell. "Light of Saber!"

This last Light of Saber was the one to break the armor on the Sea Serpent's head, splitting in half and falling to either side in the water with a big splash. Now it was his chance to do something. Aurdel let go of Everest and unslung his rifle, taking aim. He carefully scoped in and hovered the reticle over the serpent's eye. Then, he fired. The shot rang out and the round launched out of the gun, plunging itself into its eye. Its screams had turned into roars by this point. Apparently one round wasn't enough to go through, so he fired again. This time there was a splatter of blood and brain matter as the second round went through and fatally wounded the creature. After a quick spasm it went completely limp and stopped moving, getting stuck on a nearby sandbank.

With the Sea Serpent dead they could go down to help the others. Everest dove downwards and landed on a gravel road into between two houses, both Yunyun and Aurdel jumped off with their weapons in hand. "Blade of Wind!" Yunyun cut through one of the crabs, Aurdel himself took his sword to one and bisected it. Everest had also chosen to take part in the fight, grabbing a crab with his beak and tearing it apart. From there it was only a matter of time before all the crabs were killed.

"I don't know who you folks are, but your help is really appreciated," one of the sword bearing men said to them, walking towards them.

"We were passing by, and we couldn't just leave you to fight that thing alone." The man seemed to be another human/animal looking hybrid, similar to Anatalia. This man wasn't a fox though, his appearance was a little more reptilian with scales, a pointed tail and sharp teeth.

"By the way, what exactly are you two? You look a little like us but not exactly."

"We're humans, from the other continent. We were on our way to Siberas."

"Humans, huh? I don't think I've ever seen a human before, you're not that much different from us."

"It's a small world."

"I can agree with that." Unlike others he'd met, this man seemed to have an accent with the way he spoke. The closest thing he could compare it to in terms of speaking english would be a South African accent. He would say it was odd, but really it wasn't. This world, no matter how large or small, had a large variety of people and could all easily speak in many different ways. The way language had developed on Earth alone was enough to prove that.

"But why are you going to Siberas? The war is still going on pretty bad there, don't you know that?"

"Actually, the war is why we're going there." A young girl with cats ears and a tail ran up to Yunyun, tugging on her leg and begging her to show off her magic again.

"You two don't exactly seem like the mercenary type."

"We're not, but a friend of mine has family they lost track of from there."

"Ah, that makes sense. I've heard that a lot of people tried to teleport out before it got really bad, never did hear what happened to them though."

"Well that's what we're looking to find out. Our friend's name is Anatalai, she hasn't told us her sister's name though."

"Anatalia? You don't mean the Queen of Thieves, do you?"
"She wasn't bluffing about that nickname?"

"You actually met her? She's legendary around these parts for what she's done."

"What exactly has she done?" He folded his arms, attentive. Yunyun was off to the side showing off her magic to the little girl.

"Well she was a professional Thief working for the North at the very start of the war, she did a lot of raids into the South by herself and stole a lot of things for her side. Even though she was the enemy a lot of the people in the South respected her." Anatalia was a war vet? She didn't exactly seem like the type to pick sides. "Not to mention, she always broke the pockets of the places she broke into. After she'd gotten what she needed she let go of the coin in villages she stopped in along the way, so the poorer people liked her too." She never really seemed like the charitable type either. "Of course this was a while ago, she eventually disappeared."

"She told me that she was involved in a raid on a noble's palace, and because of that she had to leave the country."

"Yeah, that's part of the story but not all. The reason she was raiding a noble's palace was because the North decided she wasn't worth it anymore, they kicked her out of the service. So she and two others decided they'd get revenge and raid the King's palace. They broke through every lock and door, cracking every safe and vault on the way in and out. They totally bankrupted the country, though the leaders tried to keep it under wraps. Anyways, one of the three ended up alerting a guard while she's grabbing the crown. So they scatter. No one knows where any of them went, though I supposed you found out where she went."

"I suppose I did." Why hadn't Anatalia chosen to tell any of them this? It's not like he didn't entirely understand where she was coming from, but it was still disingenuous to do it.

"So, what's your names? Mine's Argoras," he stuck out his partially claw hand. Aurdel shook it.

"Well mine is Aurdel Ganowicz, her's is Yunyun," he gestured to Yunyun who now looked over desperately towards him as she had a small horde of kids surrounding her, several hanging off of her arms.

"Your name… should I know it from somewhere?" The man looked at him, as if examining him.

"No, not really."

"Ah, I suppose it's just my imagination. Now why don't you join us for lunch?"


After lunch, a meal consisting mostly of fried crab and Sea Serpent, they set off again towards Siberas. There was a large amount of fog as they flew for some reason. Normally in a case like this, you'd want to land. But there was no form of land in sight anywhere. So they had to keep moving along. And because of how cold it'd become he'd given Yunyun his own coat to wear on top of hers since he minded it less. "Aurdel, do you think we're almost there?"

"I'm not sure, I can hardly see just in front of us let alone far off into the distance. But I hope that we are." Even with the fog he could tell that it was beginning to get dark, and if the sun went down while the fog was still around it'd be considerably more dangerous to fly. So they would have to keep pushing.

It was calm. The only noise there was was the sound of their breathing, the flapping of Everest's wings and the sounds of the ocean. There was nothing else. No thunder, no battle, no monsters. "Aurdel, what are we going to do if we do find Anatalia's sister?"

"We bring her back I suppose, I don't think there's anyone that we could leave her with."

"But wouldn't that be a problem? I don't want to be negative about it, but if we had her stay with us then that would mean that someone has to stay home with her when we're out on quests."

"Hmm… I suppose that's true. That'll be a bridge for us to cross when we get there. For now let's focus on getting to Siberas so we can bring everyone else to us."

"You're right, we shouldn't worry that far ahead," and she relaxed, pressing her head up against his back.

A few more hours passed, and it was becoming increasingly dark. Worryingly so. Could they really make it to the other continent before it was completely dark? He wasn't confident. He tried not to make that nervousness visible. But after a moment of despair, he heard something. Squawking. It sounded like a seagull. Then the fog began to thin as they kept moving. Eventually they were able to see land and the forming of a coastline, culminating in them finally arriving and flying over the land. They were in Siberas. Or at least, the South of Siberas