"I am Arthania."
The woman before us spoke, her eyes filled with a bright radiance with every word she said.
Honestly, I didn’t know how to deal with the situation. Should I smile, extend my hand to shake hers, or do something else?
I wasn’t even sure whether following her was the right decision... after all, we had only met a few minutes ago.
It was true that she didn’t show any ill intent toward us, and I was certain that if she had any bad intentions, we would already be finished.
Even if the six of us joined together and threw our lives at her, I doubt we would be able to leave a real wound on her... after all, she was someone who had achieved Transcendence.
So it could be said that our lives were now in her hands.
I simply remained standing where I was while Arthania ignored my behavior. She lightly turned, giving us her back while staring at the enormous corpse of the monster.
"But before we go to my residence, we need to prepare this and take it with us."
She looked at us over her shoulder. "This doesn’t bother you, my honored guests?"
Her hazel eyes shone with her words.
I nodded. "No problem... do you want some help? Even if we can’t do much... I mean, this monster’s body is tougher than something we can cut."
She smiled. "No need to get dirty, handsome... just wait and I’ll finish the work quickly."
With that, Arthania stepped toward the corpse and moved her spear with terrifying speed and force. In the next moment, the monster’s neck separated, and a waterfall of blood spilled onto the ground.
Every movement of her spear looked as if it was cutting through space itself.
I stared at Arthania as she cut apart this enormous monster like a small chicken, while at the same time I felt the others approaching me until someone nudged my side.
I turned my head to find Elliot.
"Since when could you speak several languages so fluently?"
I raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you think I am? A barbarian who only knows how to wave a sword?"
"Yes," he answered without shame.
"Let’s forget that for now. There are more important things... like where we are." Ellen intervened.
Everyone fell silent at that, until Leona broke the silence, speaking the words everyone refused to believe.
"Are we really on the ancient Earth?"
Fear and unease were clear in her voice. No one wanted to believe it.
"No, it might not be that. Just because this place is called Africa doesn’t mean we’re on the ancient Earth," Izel said.
"Yes, the names might just be similar," Elliot added.
It was obvious they were lying to themselves now... they had even completely forgotten the language the woman spoke and every other piece of evidence.
From the geography to the sky.
Only Ellen seemed to be accepting the situation better... as for Kyle, he was standing there with a distant look in his eyes.
I looked at them one by one before pulling them out of their illusions.
"We are on the ancient Earth, and that is not up for debate."
My tone became more serious and colder.
"So just accept it and adapt."
Before anyone could respond, I looked toward Arthania.
"And it seems there are humans alive here after all, so it’s not completely hopeless... we might find a clue that leads us back, like an old rift site that never closed."
I looked back at them, and it seemed my words helped as they calmed down a little, while some light returned to Kyle’s eyes.
"So what we’ll do now is go with her and see what we can learn."
Ellen nodded. "He’s right... but it seems there are some language barriers."
She looked at the others.
"It seems Arthania speaks one of the ancient Earth languages, and it’s a language that is still widespread even now in our world, so which of you can speak it?"
Learning multiple languages and absorbing large amounts of knowledge was easy for the Awakened. After all, with our powerful minds we could learn the basics of a language like English and speak it within no more than two weeks.
That was why the curriculum at the Axis was so dense and difficult.
Leona was the first to answer. "I understand a little... it resembles the language used by some old families in the Auerlion Empire."
Elliot nodded. "I can speak it a little too."
I looked at Izel and Kyle, who both shook their heads.
Ellen exhaled. "Alright, that’s good."
With those words, she looked at me.
"You handle speaking with her. It seems you’re better at it than all of us."
I shrugged. "I was going to do that anyway."
"But you know what to do... don’t reveal that we’re not from this world... just pretend we came from an island in the middle of the ocean."
Everyone nodded.
Suddenly, a voice whispered beside me, sending a chill down my spine.
"What are you talking about?"
Startled, I took a few steps back, only to find that Arthania had appeared beside me at some point.
"How?"
How did she get there without me sensing her?
I looked at Arthania as she smiled.
"Don’t be afraid, I won’t eat you... I’m just curious. Why do you speak like that? It sounds like you were taught three or four languages all at once."
I sighed as I answered, "Everyone speaks like that where we come from."
Arthania nodded when I said that, then looked toward where the monster’s corpse had been. Now all that remained were its limbs and head with some feathers... when did the rest disappear?
"Where did you put it?" I asked, while Arthania raised what looked like a leather bag swaying in her hand.
"Here."
Is that a storage item? I thought she would carry all that herself.
Well, why wouldn’t they have storage items like us? Even if it was an old version like an enchanted leather bag.
I looked at the others before she continued.
"If you’ve finished discussing whether I want to eat you or not, let’s move... we have a long walk ahead."
With those words, she hung the leather bag on her back and began walking.
I looked at the others before following her.
"Let’s go."
...
Some time passed since we began moving with Arthania.
I walked beside her while the others followed behind us.
Looking at her up close, it seemed her height was slightly above my shoulder level.
In fact, I still feel like this is just a strange dream... everything happened quickly, from meeting this woman to following her to the place where she lives.
"Are there many other humans in the place we’re going to?"
I asked. Arthania nodded, strands of her hair swaying with each movement.
"Yes."
"How many inhabitants?"
She placed a hand under her lips as she thought for a moment before answering.
"I’m not sure... maybe around thirty thousand, more or less."
I almost opened my mouth... thirty thousand? That exceeded my expectations by hundreds of times.
I still don’t know whether following her is truly the right decision... but what choices do we really have?
Refuse and go around the center, leaving behind an entire city full of humans here in this world that everyone believes ended long ago?
Of course not... who knows, we might find a way back there.
And besides some curiosity... a lot of it.
"Will you really just receive us like that? Aren’t you suspicious of our intentions or anything like that, even though you don’t really have a reason to do so?"
She raised a finger toward me while continuing to walk forward without stopping.
"First, you are nothing to me... I can kill you with this finger."
I saw her smile widen before she continued.
"And you are humans like me... so who am I to leave you behind there?"
After thinking for a moment, I asked another question.
"How long have you been living here?"
Arthania listened to each question before answering.
"We’ve been here since the moment I can remember."
When did you start remembering?
"You said earlier that you thought all humans outside were dead. Don’t you know what things are like outside? I mean, haven’t you left the maze before or something?"
Arthania turned her head toward me, revealing her face. She looked young... maybe the same age as Alicia Astra Nova, or a little older.
A smile appeared on her lips.
"You ask a lot of questions, handsome."
"But you’re right. It has been a very long time since I left the maze for the last time."
With those words, she placed a finger on her chin as if falling into deep thought, before speaking a few words that made me question my decisions once again.
"Hmm... maybe the last time I left was before..."
"... before the rifts leading to the other world were closed."