"Hurry-"

"Should we-"

"Allowing an outcast, much less outsiders, to-"

So many other voices came into focus, then faded as I drifted in an out of consciousness. I'm pretty sure that, at this point, a fall wouldn't have knocked me out under normal circumstances, but then again, you don't normally fall to the ground with an explosion on your heels. Also, I was pretty sure that I hit the ground head first, so there was that.

Eventually, though, I felt my consciousness slip away for real, and descended into dream land.

XXXXXXXXX

Slowly, my eyes fluttered open. As the world came into focus, I tried to determine where I was. All I found was darkness, aside from some glowing shapes that flitted about like insects. Having just come from the Monster Hunter world, I couldn't help but compare them to Great Thunderbugs. Cautiously, they danced through the sky, occasionally stopping to look at me, before returning to their flight patterns. After a while, they just seemed to forget I was there.

Soon, though, something else joined us in this endless void - a great golden creature that I was very familiar with.

Despite clearly looking right at me, though, Celempheros paid me no mind, instead focusing on something else. Curious, I decided to follow.

As I pursued the progenitor, the world around me changed. The darkness slowly gave way to the empty void of space, where I witnessed many celestial phenomenon occurring - stars shifted around me, electromagnetic waves that a normal human could never hope to comprehend fluttered in freedom, and meteors, comets, and asteroids shot around. Gradually, though, this all faded into the background as we arrived at a planet...or should I say Planet?

On this world, worm-like creatures with vicious beaked maws battled human settlers, refugees from a dying world, trying hard to start over after their forbearers had ruined their home. Beneath the surface of their promised land, a mighty mind dwelled, waiting for the day it would awaken...which would spell doom for the remerging human civilization.

Yet all of this barely mattered to me, even if Planet had given me the sum total of mankind's technological achievements in this universe. What mattered was that, as all of this happened, Celm was holding out his arms, and slowly, light began to travel toward his hands. Bit by bit, tiny glints of light would gather into the elder progenitor's palms, until two orbs of light occupied the once empty spaces. These lights, in turn, were then fused together into a single orb, after which point the golden Progenitor opened a portal and disappeared within it. Before the rift in space and time closed, I managed to make my way within, where I found myself joining my ROB's superior in floating over...was that Earth?

Apparently it was.

High above the surface of what was at least an iteration of the world I had once called home, I watched as Celm held the orb outstretched, as if waiting for something to happen. Moments later, something did - the orb exploded into a set of smaller lights, which hastily bolted down to the Earth's surface. There, they travelled until they came upon several sleeping humans, whose heads they launched themselves into. The slumbering humans were mostly unaffected by the lights colliding and then merging with their heads, though some briefly shoed signs of discomfort.

After that, though, the vision faded, and I felt myself slipping away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Slowly, I awakened again...to find something curling its arms around me. A quick examination revealed that it was Rory...what, how'd he get here?

"Yay! You're awake."

"...I teleported outside of the Nora lands, approached the nearest sentries, and asked them if I could be taken to the matriarchs to see you."

"And they let you?"

"People appeared from nowhere during the proving, alongside a bunch of monsters. Then machines unlike any ever seen decided to join the fun. Everyone needs some time to come to terms with the madness...oh, and I promised to help explain things to them after you woke up."

"...Okay. Is there anything that happened while I was out that I should know?"

"...Ms. Fide says there is one thing."

"And that is?"

"Apparently, more of the portals that Geralt used to get to the Monster Hunter world and this one are showing up in the monster hunter world, though they're weaker than the one you used to travel here and are decreasing in frequency. On the bad side, another portal to the witcher world opened up here."

….What?

"And before you ask, all that has come through so far is a Kikimore pack that got flattened by a thunderjaw."

Okay, at least I could rest knowing that the monsters of the witcher world were not going to make this harder for me than I wanted...now how do I deal with all the problems that this causes.

Also, there was something else I needed to have answered.

"Where's everyone else?"

"Well, according to Fide, Cassidy is waking up her mom right now, Aloy just tried to access the Zero Dawn cradle within All Mother Mountain, and Geralt and our friends from the monster hunter world are just starting to wake up. I think the matriarchs wanted to see us after this is over - I did promise to tell them to explain what happened."

"And you are far to young to get chased out of a place by people with torches and pitch forks."

"Wouldn't they use bows and spears?"

I actually let out a laugh when I realized what my son had just said. "I don't think it matters what they chase you out of the sacred lands with, only that you leave running with your tail between your legs."

"But you don't run with your tail between your legs, and you're someone who actually has a tail...at least some times. Actually, I don't think anything runs with its tail between its legs."

Despite myself, I smiled. For all the craziness that had happened so far, this little conversation with my son felt really relaxing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: I HAVE RETURNED!

Anyway, expect updates to be more often - I HAVE A LOT OF GROUND TO COVER!

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!