Wind roared in my ears and buffeted my body as I came to. I felt odd, like I was flying, or falling. Opening my eyes, I saw it was more of the former, but by the way we were losing speed it would soon become the latter.
Eris was held tightly in my arms, along with my new staff. The world around us was a constantly changing blur of shapes and colors as we seemed to be bouncing around like a pinball.
Have to land or we're going to go splat.
I tried to focus on the ground, channeling mana to my eyes desperately in an attempt to see more, to pierce the maddening blur.
The world slowed, just a bit, and I could make out more details. Strips or bands of land zipped by beneath us.
Sea. Can't drink it all and I'm not dealing with magical Jaws. Fuck that noise.
Mountains. Rocky landing and most of the ranges in this world are full of dragons. Nope.
Forests. Too many monsters.
Desert. Fuck no.
Barren, reddish brown land. Good enough!
I focused, casting Air Running and kicking us in that direction. The sense of flying stopped and suddenly, we were falling. But that was fine, I'd fallen from higher testing new spells or my ultralight before. I cast my go to flight spell, turning our fall into a gentle glide down. Touching down on the ground atop a mesa, I surveyed our surroundings.
It was night here, the sun having set already and the moon full in the sky. The land was a barren red-brown that reminded me of home. Home on Earth, that is. It even smelled familiar, owing to a high iron content in the soil. The terrain was rocky, with hard packed sandy ground and nothing in the way of grass, trees, or even scrub brush as far as I could see. I hadn't seen any water sources on the way down, either. It was hot, but not an oven. There was enough mana in the air that I could feel it brushing against my own like cobwebs. That was worrying because everything I'd read said high mana density areas meant strong monsters.
But aren't those usually in forests? Not barren wastelands?
Checking over Eris, I found she was simply sleeping. I could wake her up now, but I would rather have a better handle on the situation first and be able to at least tell her where we were and have some idea of what our next move was. So, I set to work getting just that.
Stone grew out in a circle around us, giving us a teen foot tall sloped wall a yard thick. Just to drive the point home to any monsters lurking in the area and thinking we'd make an easy meal, I added serrated spikes. Next, I raised a stone dome around us, open on the sides, to give us some shade. A bit of wind magic produced a comfortable breeze that I could sustain indefinitely while I worked.
Shelter taken care of, I summoned the drone I had just used yesterday to help clear out the forest outside Buena. Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I said, "Sprite, I'm sending this up. Think you can do some aerial recon?"
"Of course, master," the spirit answered dutifully, and the wind spirit within the drone roused to wakefulness and took off. While that's working, I should make a few more.
The ground here was full of minerals compared to Fittoa, too many really for it to be good for much of anything normally. But it was pretty much perfect for my purposes, as I began stripping out iron and a few other trace metals—mostly nickel and copper by the feel of them. Sprite could probably tell me the exact composition if I tied some earth spells into her enchantments, but it wasn't important right now. Maybe later. Drones that could scan for mineral deposits. Now that could be handy.
Fire magic provided heat enough to smelt everything down and allow me to better strengthen it while keeping it light. I poured it into a telekinetic mold that left lots of little pockets of vacuum in it to cut down the weight, I then cooled it slowly with water magic.
Next, I summoned a mana crystal and merged it into the new structure, enchanted it with the same enchantments as the first true drone, and checked that everything that needed to move would.
Finally, I used summoning to call up a new little crystal butterfly—identical to the first one already inside my current drone overhead. "Okay girl, I need you to take this up and circle for me. Got it? Go wide around the drone already up there."
The wind spirit gave a positive sounding chirp in answer before its crystal body dissolved and sank into the drone. The flaps gave a few experimental twitches before it lifted off on a gust of wind. When it got far enough up, the whoosh of the engine kicked in and it zipped away before turning upwards.
Pulling out my phone, I began giving orders. "Sprite, give me the feed from the drones. Highlight anything that looks like a monster or person. Then start mapping and comparing it to the data from our paper maps. I want to know where we are as soon as possible."
"Right away, master," she acknowledged and a full color hologram popped up above the display. Immediately, things began to stand out as they were highlighted.
Reds indicated confirmed monsters, of which there were many within as little as a mile of us, but nothing in the immediate vicinity—mostly due to being on top of one of the many plateaus. As I had thought earlier, it was very much like a mesa. The entire area was reminding me more and more of Colorado in terms of geography. And now that I had drones up, I could actually make out plant life. There wasn't much, but there was some—most of it scrub, as I'd thought. It was just very hard to see from the air without zooming in, which Sprite could. The biggest threat in the area were several very large turtle or tortoise looking monsters that stood out in particular for their size.
Yellows indicated suspected camouflaged monsters, of which there were a few. Most of them were disguised as rocks, but a few were clearly outlines of big lizards or something that looked like mangy coyotes laying among the rocks.
Blues indicated humanoids. There was a village of them not too far from us, maybe ten miles on foot if counted only in horizontal distance, but no others nearby… Save for one, about three miles away, approaching our position unerringly in as straight a line as it could manage given the terrain and at great speed—leaping through the terrain like something out of a goddamn shonen manga and confirming whoever it was definitely knew how to use touki. It only veered away to approach one of the yellows, which turned red the moment he got close and shifted from what looked like a rock into some kind of wood or brush monster, like a living tumbleweed.
Forewarned is forearmed, so I channeled and held a few Telekinesis spells ready just in case, that way it wouldn't be obvious if whoever it was meant no harm.
Before I could contemplate too much on that, my phone rang. I blinked as the hologram I was watching moved to the side, making way for a little box requesting a call from Roxy.
I accepted immediately and a new hologram joined the first—that of my future wife looking worried as she watched her surroundings and occasionally glanced at her phone. She looked to be walking down a road somewhere, but I couldn't place it. And just as it was when I left, it was mid-morning where she was. Meaning I was far enough away to have crossed several time zones, if this world even had those, which I doubted. More due to a lack of global communication and fast travel than any sort of lack of timekeeping, at a guess.
I did notice that Sprite's clock in the corner of the display had updated and now displayed local time for both myself and Roxy—or what must be a guess of local time, at around midnight, with a question mark beside it. She'll update it when the sun comes up.
Roxy's eyes locked onto mine the moment she realized the call had connected. "Rudy. You're okay." She breathed a quiet sigh. "What happened? Sprite said she couldn't connect."
The relief was audible, even if it barely showed on her face. "I think we were teleported. Eris is here with me. Not just us, though. We were outside the city when it happened. It looked like a nuke going off."
Roxy was the only other person on this planet who would understand the significance of those words, in that context. The book I gave Sylphie may have contained references to them, but Roxy was the only one I'd gone out of my way to explain what they were to. Mostly to impress upon her just how dangerous science could be, what with the force of such a blast and the following invisible radiation.
The woman frowned, eyes narrowing as she studied the hologram of where I was on her side. After a moment, she asked, "You've made a shelter and fortified your position. Good work. Do you know where you are?"
"Nope. Hang on. Sprite, could you send her the drone feed?"
Sprite chirped once and Roxy looked off to the side, studying what she saw there. It didn't take her long to come to a conclusion. "You are in immense danger. That is the Demon continent. I believe that this village," she tapped the settlement visible in the feed and Sprite helpfully highlighted it, "is my former home. Make camp tonight and tomorrow, travel there and see. If it is, I suggest staying there. I can come get you—"
"Roxy," I interrupted her gently. "I think I can handle myself, even looking after Eris at the same time—even if I trust her to handle herself, for the most part. I'll be careful and try my hand at a few of the local monsters just to be sure, but I'm not going to sit around twiddling my thumbs while we wait for you to come rescue us. If I have to, I can scale up and fly there. But I don't want to leave immediately. I'm worried that if we were teleported outside the city, then we've got at least a city's worth of people unaccounted for. If we made it here, I want to check around and see if I can find Sylphie, her mom and sister, Ghislaine, and Eris' family."
Roxy went silent as she studied me for a moment before she sighed and chuckled quietly. "No, you wouldn't, would you Rudy? Very well. Then I suggest making your way to Rikarisu, to the northeast of the continent. Report the incident to the Adventurers' Guild and they'll spread the information to other guilds and likely start a search and rescue mission for survivors. From there, you should make your way southwest across the continent to Wind Port. There, you can take a ship across the sea. I will try to meet you in Wind Port."
There was really no reason not to meet up with her. "Sounds like a plan. So—"
The holograms of Roxy and my drone feed were joined by a third hologram. Roxy and I both fell silent. This feed showed the inside of what looked to be some sort of bedchamber, white walls richly decorated with gold and silver fixtures and expensive looking furniture. Just as Roxy's feed had a text tag under it identifying that it came from Roxy's phone, this one was labeled 'Sylphie.' And yet…
The face that greeted us was the one I had kissed just this morning. Same face, same eyes, same ears. But the hair was a startling shade of white.
"Rudy! Roxy! You're safe!" The girl cheered, tears springing to her eyes as she looked at us. Roxy and I traded a confused look. I shrugged and she gave an equally baffled reply.
"It's good to see you, Sylphie. I'm glad you're safe," I sent the girl a smile.
"I'm happy that you're safe, but where are you now? What happened to your hair?" Roxy asked.
"I-I'm in the Silver Palace, in Ars." Looking confused, she asked, "What about my hair?"
"It's white. And Ars as in Asura?" I asked, getting a nod in answer. Frowning, I asked, "Were you with your mother when it happened? Is she there with you?"
"I was, and she's not. She doesn't have a phone. Do you have a spare I can Send her?"
"Yeah, sure," I nodded, digging out my spare from my pocket and Sending it to Sylphie, who immediately Sent it with her own magic.
"Thank you, Rudy. Sprite, could you…?" A new hologram joined the others, this one showing a woman curled around a child, laying in what looked like sand against a snow bank in bright light, shovering.
I frowned, picking up my own phone and beginning to add new enchantments—one for each of the general elemental manipulation fields. "Sprite, update everything you've got access to with this. You saw me make this shelter. Think you can duplicate it? Also going to need you to provide a fire."
"I believe so, master. I shall try," the spirit agreed, and a moment later a stone wall began to rise out from under the snow, before it stopped. "The local terminal does not have enough mana to finish."
Frowning, I considered the problem. Okay, I could summon it back and forth, but that'd be a waste of time. How about a way to charge it wirelessly. Can you Send mana? I… don't really see why not. If you had enough mana, it would cover the network overhead for the Sending spell and then some.
I began enchanting the phone again while summoning a few more monster cores/mana crystals. Taking out a couple of silver coins from my pocket, I used earth magic to reshape them into a bracelet, wrapping around a trio of mana crystals. Then, I enchanted the bracelet to Send mana to my phone, detect their current mana level, and if it fell below 50% to Summon mana from me. As soon as the spell settled in, it filled them with mana. "Okay Sprite, update everything and see if you can—"
"I have it, master!" The wall on the other end of Sylvia's phone rose up, along with a shelter over her. Then, she cleared the snow under and around Sylvia and Elin down to dirt, which swiftly dried up. A rock rose out of the ground nearby and nothing visibly happened for a moment, until I noticed what looked like heat waves shimmering off of it. "I will move the local terminal into an overwatch position and alert you when she wakes, or if monsters approach."
"Thank you, Sprite," Sylphie sighed, smiling at the phone as the new hologram cut out. Turning back to me and Roxy, she continued her story. "There was a bright white light, then I was falling from the sky. …I saw a man fall to his death."
I met Roxy's eyes. "If it wasn't isolated to Roa, if it reached the village… Sprite, where are Norn and Aisha's phones? Who has the one from the mansion? And go ahead and call Ghislaine, get her in on this."
"One moment," the spirit answered. Then four new views popped up. One from the inside of a building, with stone walls in what looked like a closet. Aisha and Lilia were unconscious on the floor. The second was the inside of a city that reminded be of something out of the middle east—from the construction to the coloration, simple and very 'desert town' look. Hilda was laid down in a stall with some sort of giant lizard wearing a saddle and nosing her curiously.
The third phone came online and we saw Ghislaine holding it up in some kind of forest. "Rudeus. Is Eris with you?" the big woman asked, before looking over Sylphie, Roxy, Sylvia and Elin, and finally Hilda. "What about Phillip and Sauros? Zenith and the others?"
"Eris is with me. No idea on Phillip and Sauros. Zenith… well," I gestured at the last hologram.
The fourth and final phone was… underwater, looking up at the sun through a few feet of water, with small fish swimming around.
The last phone lifted up out of the water before the hologram spun around, taking in the surroundings—an ocean, a beach, and not a person visible for miles. The tag was labeled 'Norn.' "Shit," I muttered. "Okay, try sending the phone to Norn."
Nothing happened. "The Sending failed, master. Should I try for Zenith?"
"Yeah," I agreed.
Sprite's answer was a hesitant, "Second failure."
"Okay," I murmured, considering the options. "Doesn't mean they're dead. There are a few reasons Summoning or Sending will fail. Most of them boil down to either magical interference or a change in the object summoned or destination sent to."
"It's a six month journey on foot. I was already on the road," Roxy offered.
"I don't know where I am," Ghislaine supplied. "A forest somewhere. The whole thing stinks of blood—" The woman paused, her ears flicking, before looking off into the forest. "I have to go. I'll contact you later."
Ghislaine's feed cut out and we all shared a worried look. Shaking my head, I decided on a course of action. "Yeah, screw that. I'll build a drone and send it ahead to confirm the damage. Actually, a carrier drone, to send over a whole mess of drones to spread out and search. Should take two, three days tops before we know for sure about Fittoa. With any luck, Sprite can spot Norn and Zenith from the air or something. We can decide what to do from there."
Hearing a crunching of boots on the ground, I sighed quietly. "I have to go. Something I have to deal with. I'll get in contact again tomorrow—"
Behind Sylphie, a door burst open and a blonde girl somewhere around my age, maybe as old as Eris, looked into the room with a look of confusion. Sylphie turned her direction and the girl's eyes locked on the hologram, then trailed down to Sylphie's hands.
Jaw flopping open, the blonde pointed. "Is that a スマートフォン?!"
I frowned. The pronunciation was… off, but I recognized the words. "Did you just ask if that was a smartphone in Engurishu?"
"Nani?"
I blinked, then grinned. "Moshi moshi desu. Sorry, that's about the extent of my Nippongo these days."
The blonde started at me. "You're from Earth!"
"Yup. Roxy, could you talk with her? And keep an eye on Lilia and Aisha. When they wake up, let them know we're safe and find out where they are, please. I'll call back."
"Yes," the bluenette agreed and I disconnected the call, but left my aerial view up. The full moon provided a good amount of light, but even if it didn't the light magic the drone was enchanted with could see in starlight like it was full day, so long as there was some light to magnify. Not to mention infrared, UV, and so on. The view might as well be in daylight and painted with the hues of heat coming off things. Things like the person sneaking into our camp.
"Why don't you come down from there and introduce yourself, stranger?" I called out.
The figure who had perched itself on my wall hopped down, circling around our open dome before crouching down just outside of it to peer inside. I reached into the magic holding the dome in place and caused it to flow back into the ground, before creating a ball of light above us.
The threat was obvious enough that I didn't think it needed to be said aloud: he had walked into an area under the complete control of a mage who could cast silently and there was a good chance that if he did something I didn't like, the ground would swallow him whole. In reality, I was ready to pull a Lucy and pop someone's head off if shit got real, with my Telekinesis spells already settling into place around his body.
Our visitor was definitely a 'he.' In the light of my spell, I could clearly see the green hair and red gem in his forehead. This time, I felt I was correct in guessing this was a member of the murder hobo race Roxy had warned me about, the Superd. I supposed it was a good thing he was polite enough to wait for me to finish my call before walking in. Wouldn't want to worry her needlessly that some dangerous-looking guy might be getting ready to murder me and Eris both.
And yet… While he carried a trident/spear in one hand, in the other arm he held a tied up load of uneven branches that were clearly meant to be used as fire wood. He also didn't appear like he had any hostile intent as he took a seat across from me and set his load and weapon down.
"You are not afraid."
I shook my head. "Not really. Cautious, certainly, but I saw you coming."
The man turned his attention to the floating hologram. "I see. You are a human child, did your parents not teach you of the Superd?"
"No, but my master did. She warned me to stay away from them."
"You're disregarding her words, you know?" The implied question of why was obvious.
"Unless you meant to eat us after killing us, you wouldn't have brought wood," I pointed out.
"We don't eat people."
"Didn't think so." I extended my hand. "Rudeus Greyrat. That's Eris Boreas Greyrat."
The man eyed my hand for a moment before reaching out and taking it. "Ruijerd Superdia." He released my hand and reached for the cloak around him. Unclasping it, he handed it to me. "For her."
I leaned over and draped the cloak over Eris. Turning back, I found Ruijerd had untied the bundle of wood and was making a fire pit. Deciding to help him out, I caused the ground under it to sink in and turn to stone. The man nodded, pulling flint and steel from his bag, but a bit of mana on my part had the wood catching fire.
"So, where exactly on the Demon continent are we?"
"The Biegoya region. The nearest settlement is a group of Migurd, there," he pointed towards the map. "We are not far from the old Kishirisu castle, in Rikarisu. Where do you hail from?"
"The citadel of Roa, in the country of Asura, of the Central Continent."
"You are very far from home. How did that come to be?"
"We were teleported. Before you arrived, I spoke with my old master and fellow student. Sylphie, the other student, said she had been teleported as well. We also managed to find a few more of our family." I sighed, casting a glance at Eris. "Just going by the cases we know of—ourselves, Sylphie, and a man Sylphie saw fall from the sky—the teleportation event was dangerous. Potentially fatal for most people. Eris' father and grandfather are probably…"
I couldn't bring myself to finish the thought. In the time I had spent there, the Boreas Greyrats had become like a second family to me. Especially given everything going on with Paul. Ghislaine could take care of herself, but Phillip? Sauros? Hilda?
I had my doubts.
Hilda had a phone with her, so she was relatively safe for now, since Sprite could discourage anyone from messing with her. Phillip and Sauros didn't have that benefit.
"I'll see you both safely back there."
I sent the man a raised eyebrow. "Why?"
"It is a warrior's duty to protect the weak.
I shook my head. "You don't have to. I can look after us and we'll be moving fast enough that monsters… probably won't be an issue."
"A Superd warrior never goes back on his word. You are children. I will accompany you."
I studied the man across the fire from me as I considered my options.
Could take the bikes and ditch him. There's no way he could keep up, even with touki. I've got drones, so monsters really won't be able to get the jump on us unless they're subterranean. Do as Roxy said and head to Rikarisu. We can cover a lot of ground with the bikes in a day, and if Aisha and Lilia are anything to go on, the teleportation effect definitely reached the village…
"Sprite, spawn a new hologram. Map of Fittoa, centered on Roa." A new hologram sprang into being, this one an overhead image of the Fittoa region, annotated with the details from the paper maps I'd taken photos of. "Give me a line from Roa to Buena Village." Sprite drew a red line between the city and the village. "Draw a circle using that as the radius, then highlight every settlement within the circle."
Ruijerd watched silently as I worked. Eventually, he said, "That area covers many miles. Many towns and villages."
"Yeah," I muttered. At a rough estimate, we were looking at thousands, maybe tens of thousands of displaced depending on Roa's population, and that's just if it stopped at Buena Village. Which I doubted.
On the other hand, it couldn't hurt to have a local guide. Someone who knows the lay of the land beyond a top down view. An extra set of eyes, to look for other displaced Fittoa residents. We can go towards Wind Port, but with the bikes we can cover a lot of ground very quickly. We could hit every town within a day's ride between here and there on the way. Go out of our way to hit every major city.
Question is, should I? Aside from looking for Zenith and Norn, it's not my responsibility. As Sauros, Phillip, an Ghislaine pointed out, it's not my place to do so.
I decided to put voice to these thoughts. "I'm thinking about searching every village between Rikarisu and Wind Port for survivors. Is that going to be a problem?"
Ruijerd frowned. "No, but it will take much time."
"Not as much as you think."
Eris murmured something in her sleep and rolled over onto her back. Reaching out, I laid a hand atop her head. "She's going to wake up soon, probably. Fair warning, Eris can be… loud."
Ruijerd nodded but made no comment on it. Picking up my phone, I checked the time. Time here worked much as it did on Earth. Twenty-four hours in a day, the sun rose in the east and set in the west, days were longer in the summer and shorter in the winter. And the world was round.
Which meant that while it was around 1p.m. in Roa, Sprite had adjusted her timekeeping based on sunset earlier, which put us at 2a.m. here. Maybe. She was guessing and would adjust after the sun came up, but it was at least accurate as a counter for how long we'd been here so far. At a rough estimate for distance, it was about as far from here to Roa as it was from New York to Shanghai.
Give or take a few thousand miles, one direction or the other.
I decided to get to work making a much larger carrier drone. In so doing, I realized that I had been stroking Eris' head for some time now. She's grown on me. I guess I can't just keep looking at her as a tsundere and a kid any more. Especially not after last night.
Focusing on what I wanted, I summoned the magical core from the bear I'd killed outside Buena Village. The one I had sent to the bunker with all of our other spoils from that outing, since I'd had no immediate use for it. Setting it down beside me, I began making the wing frame—a much larger version of the ones I had overhead. Much, much larger.
Speaking of… "Sprite, put the drones in an expanding spiral. I want as much of the surrounding terrain mapped as you can get overnight. And if you spot any people, try to get enough of a shot of their face to identify whether they're human or not. I doubt there are going to be too many humans wandering the Demon Continent," I sent Ruijerd a questioning look and he shook his head.
"Sometimes adventurers do come here, but it's rare."
"Thought so. Yeah, Sprite, mark their locations and take pictures of their faces. If they're dead… well, do the same and mark them as deceased. If they're in immediate danger and you can do something about it, please do."
"The monsters won't leave much in the way of a corpse," Ruijerd warned, and I nodded. It was awful, but a fact of life in this world. Monsters ate people.
That taken care of, I settled into my work. I have no idea how much time passed, but eventually Eris jerked awake and looked around. She seemed confused at her surroundings, but otherwise okay when she spotted me.
Then she saw Ruijerd and freaked right the fuck out. "Aaaaahhhh! Nooooo!" she shrieked, scrabbling backwards madly from the man who was… just sitting there, looking calm but mildly disappointed.
Looking between him and Eris, I asked, "That happen a lot?"
Ruijerd nodded. "Sadly. This reaction is the one I am most accustomed to."
"So I'm the weird one for not panicking?" I asked, and the man nodded again.
Frowning, I stood and made my way over to the panicked girl. Something didn't feel right. At all. I knew Eris. She didn't get scared often and when she did, every time before now she attacked that fear head on. By which, I mean she took whatever was at hand and beat on whatever made her scared until it stopped scaring her.
This was… Out of character.
Moving been Eris and Ruijerd, I crouched down and blocked her view of the man, looking into her eyes as I reached out and took her hands. Eris latched on like a drowning man thrown a life preserver.
"Shh. It's okay. You're safe."
"Rudeus! No, no we're not! Not safe! I don't want to die! It's a monster!"
Taking one of my hands back, I reached out and covered her eyes. Eris quieted, but I could feel her trembling. "No one's going to hurt us. Okay?"
"A-are you sure?"
"I'm sure," I agreed, and she slowly settled down. Moving to the side, I lifted my hand.
Eris' red eyed gaze found Ruijerd again. "Eeee!"
She panicked, looked around, and promptly put me between her and the supposed threat before latching on and shaking her head. "Blast it! Make it go away!"
"Eris, listen," I tried to get her attention. When I saw she had settled a little, I asked, "What's so scary about that man?"
"He's a Superd! They eat children alive!"
Understandable, but I've never seen her this scared. It would make sense if he were doing something threatening, but not just sitting there. It's like… looking at a Fear effect in real life.
Grabbing her hand, I pulled it up to my mouth and nibbled on one of her fingers. "Eek!" She shrieked, before realizing it was just me. "S-stop that, Rudeus! It's not funny!"
"It totally was," I countered.
"Okay." Reaching around, I grabbed Eris and forced her around in front of me. It took a lot of work because she apparently really didn't want to be moved, but I eventually got it done.
"Alright Eris, this is Ruijerd Superdia. He's a… A friend. A warrior. He's going to be traveling with us while we're heading back to Roa. I promise, he's not going to hurt you. Now, open your eyes and greet him properly."
"Nn…" Eris hissed, pulling a face before very cautiously opening her eyes. She flinched when she saw him, but didn't run. "H-h-hello. I-I'm Eris Boreas G-Greyrat. Pleased.. to meet you."
She even managed a sloppy curtsy. I was impressed.
"Hello."
"Great, now you know each other. Eris, play nice. I have some things to take care of. Ruijerd, please fill her in on where we are and what's going on."
"W-wait! You're just leaving me here?!"
I rolled my eyes. "Eris, I'm going right over here to work on something. I promise, I'm not going to just leave you here with some guy we just met, even if he does seem like a decent person."
"O-okay," she nodded. Turning to Ruijerd, Eris put her fists on her hips and assumed tsundere defiant stance number two. "Where are we and what's going on?!"