Above the enormous corpse of the greater monster, a single woman stood with the great spear in her hand.
With clear bronze skin and loose clothes made of beautiful gray fabric, she stood there while her black hair swayed with the light breeze, and her hazel eyes carrying a faint shine stared at us.
In the next moment, her lips moved, forming a few words... words I hadn’t heard in a very long time.
"Who are you?"
I froze in place as I heard that familiar language from my past life.
After humans migrated to the world of Aetheron from all over Earth, the most common languages of Earth merged together, forming a new hybrid language used by people there in the four empires.
But that didn’t mean the old languages of Earth were forgotten. On the contrary, even in the world of Aetheron you could find many people fluent in pure English, or French, and even Arabic.
But none of that mattered now.
All that mattered was what stood before me.
A human.
A human who still existed on the Ancient Earth, and a powerful one at that.
Using my ability and through my eyes, I could see the astonishing radiance of this woman’s soul, to the point it almost blinded me.
Rank 5... Transcendence.
The crushing pressure released by this woman fell upon our shoulders as she took a step forward on the corpse of the dead monster.
She was hundreds of meters away, and I was certain she had only taken a single step, but...
That simple step closed the distance between us, and she appeared only a few meters away.
"I asked you, who are you?" her beautiful voice echoed again in the place, the pressure growing stronger.
I was the one standing at the front, and for the first time... I didn’t know how to respond.
I stared at her with wide eyes.
Not because I was afraid or anything like that, but because many questions appeared in my head all at once.
How were there still humans alive?
In fact, why wouldn’t there be?
No one truly knew what happened to Earth after the rifts closed, and the game never touched on anything related to the Ancient Earth... at least not up to the point I reached.
We all stood there staring at the woman in shock, until irritation began to appear on her beautiful face.
"I am speaking to you... are you humans from the outside?... I thought all of them had died."
The woman stepped toward us with slow steps. "So, will you speak, or should I make you speak?"
Her tone was calm with only a bit of annoyance, and it contained no real killing intent.
Even now, I still didn’t know how I should react, or what I should say.
But not everyone was like me.
It was true they were surprised by the appearance of another human here, but their shock wasn’t as deep as mine... perhaps because they still didn’t truly know where we were.
Ellen stepped forward and passed me while raising her hands in a gesture of peace. "We’re just a lost group and we don’t want to fight."
When Ellen spoke, the woman frowned more than ever. "What are these chaotic words you’re speaking, little one?"
"Speak in words I understand."
When she said that, Ellen realized the woman before her didn’t understand the common language of the world of Aetheron, and as a result, confusion appeared on her face.
But as expected from the princess, she knew a little about the original languages of Earth.
Her accent and the way she spoke changed to resemble that woman’s... even if she was only a beginner.
"I said... we are just a lost group, ma’am, and we are searching for a way back."
Ellen tried to show that she wanted peace with this woman. "So... can you tell us where we are?"
The pressure around us disappeared while she stared at us calmly.
"A lost group?" she murmured.
Her hazel eyes swept over us one by one, and it seemed she was evaluating us inside her head.
"Strange... where did these strangers come from?" she muttered to herself, while Izel whispered beside me.
"What is this language she’s speaking? It sounds familiar and distant at the same time."
I remained silent for a few moments before answering.
"Arabic."
"You ask me where this place is? Well... as far as I remember, perhaps the remains of a continent called Africa."
She spoke with doubt in her voice, as if she wasn’t entirely certain.
But she said Africa... so my suspicions were correct after all.
I didn’t know whether I should be happy or sad about that.
"Africa," Ellen murmured, her eyes widening as if she had just realized the greatest secret of life.
She wasn’t the only one surprised in that way. The others were as well. After all, they all knew the basic geography of Earth.
Because we had an entire class about it in history and geography.
"Africa... she doesn’t mean that continent from the old Earth... right?" Elliot asked from beside me, shock clear in his voice.
"No... how could that be? How...?" Izel muttered.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I looked at the woman who spoke when she saw our reaction.
"It seems you’re not from this continent or something similar."
She leaned on her spear and continued, "So, where are you from? And are there any other humans outside?"
Does she mean outside the maze?
Everyone remained silent, and no one answered... perhaps the only question in their minds was whether we were truly on Earth.
I stepped toward the woman while thinking about what I should say... I don’t think telling her we’re from another world would be a good idea, at least not now.
I changed the language I was speaking while approaching her.
"We’re from Australia, and we don’t know how we ended up here... and of course there are a few humans where we came from."
I was just making up the words.
Well, she had no evidence whether what I said was true or false, especially since I chose that distant continent.
But to my surprise, she raised an eyebrow while looking at me.
"You speak fluently unlike that girl, but wasn’t Australia destroyed and sunk a long time ago?"
I froze in place, but quickly recovered.
"I mean what remains of it."
It seemed my answer convinced the woman before us, so she nodded her head, her hair swaying with the movement. Even so, I could still see some doubt remaining in her eyes.
At the same time, I felt the gazes of the others fall on me, but none of them spoke.
The woman before us exhaled.
"You seem tense. Don’t worry, I won’t harm you or interrogate you... so if you don’t want to answer something, just don’t."
She looked at me with her hazel eyes.
"So, what is your name?"
"Caius," I answered simply.
The woman nodded before continuing.
"So, Caius, you seem tired and quite injured... I’d say you’ve fought many battles here, which is truly impressive considering you are still young."
She looked at us one by one.
"So why don’t you be my guests and come with me? Sitting and talking would be better under a roof than staying here."
I hesitated while staring at her... perhaps in any other situation, I would think she was a monster in human skin trying to lure us into her lair to play with us or something like that.
But looking at her soul, I could tell she was a real human.
I hesitated.
Should we accept and go with her?
Suddenly something clicked in my head.
I looked at this strange woman before asking, "Are there other humans here?"
She didn’t hesitate and pointed toward the path behind her.
"Of course. There is an entire city in the center in that direction."
So that empty space Kyle saw from afar contains a city inhabited by humans?
And now this woman is inviting us there... to meet humans from Earth.
I thought for a moment before turning and looking at the others, trying to send them a message without words.
"Go along with it."
I looked back at the woman before us.
"We would be happy to come with you."
She smiled gently while looking at the others.
"So, won’t you tell me your names?"
From the corner of my eye, I saw Izel nudging Elliot beside her.
"Someone tells me what she’s saying."
Elliot answered simply. "She’s asking us to go with her, and now she’s asking for our names."
I decided it would be better for me to handle it, so I spoke while pointing at them.
"That golden-haired boy is Elliot, the one beside him is Izel, the silent one at the back is Kyle... and the one with blue hair is Leona."
"As for the girl you were speaking with just now, that’s Ellen."
The woman’s smile widened.
"You have beautiful names."
"And now let me introduce myself."
Her hazel eyes shone as she spoke her name as if it were the greatest thing in existence.
"I am Arthania."