A forest,

That was what Wraith first saw after going through the portal.

It was a very dark forest; he could barely make out the silhouettes of the trees around him. He was in the middle of a small clearing. The canopies block out any light from any stars or natural satellites of whatever planet he is on. He also noted that there are no signs of the gate he entered through.

"Just my luck…" Wraith sighed, "At least it's not hell. Welp, I hope this beacon works," he said as he set up the device. He activated it and left it on the ground, hoping that his ship would come there.

Unbeknownst to him, his destination would be somewhere that can't be traveled to through conventional means. Fortunately in such emergencies, his ship will try to contact the Deathstrider. This was a failsafe made right after that one incident where he got stranded in hell.

After setting up the beacon, seeing as he had nothing else to do, he decided to investigate around the dark forest. He tried to open his flashlight, but somehow, it struggled to pierce through the darkness.

Wander around the dark it is, then. How exciting.

He hoped to find any settlements that had not been attacked by demons yet. But, after only walking for a few meters, he found something unexpected.

"W-what the hell?" Wraith breathed out loud. Before him lies corpses of various demons. "Did they die from infighting? Or were they killed by the locals?" he wondered as he examined the corpses, looting the zombies for their ammo.

He immediately found out the answer to his question as he heard rustling amongst the leaves, accompanied by hushed voices. Wraith, his experience kicking in, immediately pointed his rifle at the source of the noise.

"Who goes there?!" Wraith shouted. Their reply came in the form of magical bullets. He quickly moved his legs in an attempt to dodge and returned fire. But with the limited vision, he didn't know if he was actually hitting something. Seeing as he was a sitting duck in the middle of the clearing, he opted to sprint through the trees while shooting at whoever was firing the magical bullets.

As he moved through the forest, he managed to catch a glimpse of his enemies.

Fairies, that was the first thing that Wraith thought when he almost ran into one of them, barely managing to shoot it with his pistol. They looked like small humans that had insect-like wings. While he would normally be disturbed with shooting at such creatures, he was currently under attack by them and he didn't know how to make them stop. He also noticed that they seem to just vanish whenever they 'die'. He continued sprinting through the forest, hoping to lose them.

He managed to find himself at a larger clearing, but in front of him was what he would describe as a ball of darkness. He acted on instinct and shot at the ball, only for it to shoot back with magical bullets, but in greater volume compared to the fairies from before.

MOON SIGN: "Moonlight Ray"

The ball started to shoot out a pair of beams, trapping Wraith in between them while a mass of bullets were sent on his way. Sensing the impending danger, he frantically shot at the ball while taking care to avoid the incoming bullets until it stopped shooting and retreated.

"What the hell was that?" Wraith asked, though no one was going to answer him, so he marched on, fighting through a group of fairies until he reached a large clearing. He could now clearly see the sky. A moon perches itself among the stars. He briefly wondered what planet he was on, but was immediately interrupted by the ball of darkness from earlier.

This time, however, the ball of darkness dissipated, revealing a figure inside. He couldn't make out her appearance due to the dark, but he can see that the figure seemed to be a young girl.

"A human?" she asked with an innocent tone.

That's a weird question, Wraith thought. Though, seeing that she's the first one to talk to him, he opted to reply, "yes, who are you?"

"We just met a few moments ago…" she tilted her head, "but whatever, I'm Rumia! Nice to meet you!"

"My name is Wraith," he replied, going for a diplomatic route.

"Wraith… you have a weird name! Are you an outsider?" she asked with a bit of excitement.

He raised an eyebrow at her question, his suspicions getting stronger, "yes, I am. Where am I?"

Though, the girl named Rumia ignored Wraith's question and instead asked her own. "Are you a human of the edible kind?" She asked menacingly. She grinned, revealing her sharp teeth.

This immediately kicked in Wraith's instincts. Whoever this girl was, she was clearly not human and certainly hostile. He raised his rifle. "No, and I'll shoot you if you try," he warned.

"Oh? Is that so~?" ignoring the gun pointed at her, she started to unleash a barrage of bullets straight at him. Wraith practically dived to take cover behind one of the trees in the clearing.

"The locals are man-eating monsters that look like humans, just my luck…" he mused while changing the magazine of his rifle and quickly reloading the empty ones in his pocket.

He got out of cover to meet his opponent face-to-face. The barrage of bullets was relentless, and Wraith managed to get hits here and there. Thankfully, his reactive armor seemed to work to prevent any major damage to himself; it has adapted to whatever type of attack he has been subjected to ever since coming to this place. The fight continued in Wraith's favor; he managed to survive a repeat of Rumia's twin beam attack.

"Grr–" Rumia growled as she got peppered by bullets. "You're quite tough for a human. But this is where you lose!"

DARKNESS SIGN: "Demarcation"

At her spell card declaration, Rumia unleashed another barrage of bullets, but this time, they were not aimed directly at Wraith and instead went over the place. He did not anticipate this, and got hit several times by the swerving bullets.

"Damn it!" Wraith cursed out loud. If this continues, his reactive armor may fail and he would get injured from the bullets. He took cover again behind the trees, thinking of a plan. "Calm down, there must be a way to avoid them…" he said to himself as he peeked out of the tree he was taking cover in. And that was when he realized something about the bullets. They were not random; they have some sort of pattern in them, and he can sort of see a way around the sea of bullets.

He switched to his shotgun, and came out of his cover. His legs worked themselves hard as he pushed himself in between the bullets like a thread going through a needle hole. He quickly fired a burst of shotgun shells at Rumia.

"Gyah!" she stopped firing as soon as she got peppered by pellets after pellets. "That hurts! You meanie!" she cried childishly.

"That's what you get for trying to eat me!" Wraith shouted back.

Rumia responded by blowing a raspberry before enclosing herself in a ball of darkness and flew around him at high speeds.

Wraith struggled to hit the ball of darkness as it kited around him. It looked like she was trying to get close to him, hoping to catch him off guard in melee.

Well, she could have done that if she did not collide with a nearby tree due to her not being able to see through the darkness she enclosed herself in.

Nobody says Rumia is bright.

"Ah! Not again!" Rumia cried out as she somehow found herself in between the branches of a tree, her legs dangled helplessly.

Wraith just stood there agape at the sheer absurdity of the situation and stupidity of his opponent. One moment she was trying to kill him, and now she somehow got stuck to a tree.

This place was getting weirder by the second, he thought.

"Somebody! Help!" Rumia shouted, wriggling her entire body. She tried to remove herself from her predicament but to no avail. Her arms got bound at the hole and unable to move it.

Wraith stared at the helpless monster—girl… thing. He contemplated whether or not he should help. On one hand, she did try to eat him. On the other hand, he had no other leads—not that he actually felt bad for her… maybe. She could probably point him to the nearest patch of civilization in this place he found himself in.

He chose to take the risk.