Part I: Lost in another world

As soon as Lazuro opened his eyes, he realised that he was no longer in Japan. His dark eyes searched his surroundings, trying to find the shrine, the bell, and the sacrificial site he had visited the night before. They had all disappeared and were replaced by a dense group of trees.

"Where am I? Where am I now? The last time I ...?"

The last thing Lazuro remembered was trying to fend off three bullies by grabbing a cursed staff near the shrine's sacrificial altar. However, the three bullies ended up tying Lazuro to a tree, along with the cursed staff he had used to fight them.

"Well done, Lazuro. You tried to fight those idiots and got tied up."

The silence, the fresh, gentle breeze, brought Lazuro a sense of reassurance for a moment. His eyes almost fell shut until he realised that this was not normal. To stay awake, Lazuro shook his head repeatedly.

"This isn't Japan. The trees are too high. No, where am I? Help... Help!"

Lazuro kicked, and somehow the rope that should have held him snapped. Lazuro tumbled to the ground, along with the cursed staff that was tied to him. As Lazuro sat up, he examined the cursed staff that was bound to him. The staff looked normal, a tubular shape wrapped in white cloth, as if it were the crosshairs of a sword. Lazuro stood up and began to swing the staff. When he was satisfied with swinging the staff, Lazuro untied the rest of the rope from his body.

"Strange, this rope is rotten, even though I tried to untie it last night. What happened?" Lazuro sighed.

Lazuro slipped out of his trousers and black blazer and began to walk. There was no one to be seen. Just the trees towered into the sky and the rustling of leaves. The silence crushed Lazuro, and made him run.

"Help ... Help ... is someone there!" Cried Lazuro.

As Lazuro shouted, the bushes nearby suddenly shook. Lazuro smiled and ran towards the bushes until a small, furry, white creature with long ears appeared. Lazuro stopped and looked at the rabbit that had just appeared.

"Wait, isn't that too big for a rabbit? It must be fifty centimetres long and thirty centimetres high?"

Apart from its abnormal size, the rabbit also had pointed ears, red eyes with yellow lines like those of a snake, and, most frightening of all, two front teeth that resembled those of a shark. Unconsciously, Lazuro raised the stick he was holding, and struck a cautious pose.

"I... that's not a rabbit. What the hell kind of creature is that?"

Lazuro stopped speaking because the rabbit was hopping towards him so fast. The rabbit opened its mouth as if it wanted to pounce on him. Suddenly, a prism of ice shot out, hit the strange rabbit, sent it flying to the side and impaled it on a tree.

"What are you doing?"

Lazuro turned towards the soft voice and discovered a woman with fair skin, blue eyes, and short, shoulder-length blue hair. The woman carried a strange staff in the shape of a curved spine and a small skull with white hair and blue gemstones for eyes. What caught Lazuro's attention was that the staff had a sort of tendril connected to the neck and the skull head. Lazuro swallowed, and tried to push away all the scary thoughts in his head.

"Excuse me, I'm actually lost? Do you know the way out of Kyomizu Temple?" Lazuro asked.

"Kyomizu temple, what do you mean?" The woman looked confused.

"Isn't this the Kyomizu temple in Kyoto?" Lazuro asked again.

"We're in Gatewood now. A forest in the north of the world. You're definitely not from turtle country. So, there really are other people who live outside of Turtle Country?" The blue-haired girl looked at Lazuro in surprise.

"Turtle Land, I don't know what you mean? We're in Japan, in Kyomizu Temple, to be precise. Are you crazy?" Lazuro frowned, his expression troubled.

“I’m not digressing. This is indeed the Northern Forest Gate, the furthest place from the centre of the world. If you don’t believe me..." The woman climbed the sky-high tree like a monkey.

“Don’t you want to climb up? You can’t see the World Tree from there,” said the blue-haired woman, who was now standing at the top of the tree.

“Climbing, you say? As if I, a monkey, could climb that high?”

“You’re a very funny man, aren’t you?” laughed the girl. “You can climb up here by concentrating mana in your body. Only you can’t use mana.”

Lazuro and the blue-haired girl exchanged a look, and the blue-haired girl immediately covered her gaping mouth.

“You can’t use mana, and you dare to come here alone? You must be crazy.”

Lazuro sat down, leaning against a tree, and sighed wearily. The blue-haired girl leaned back against the ground, and let out a loud crunch.

“Are you alright?” the girl asked.

Lazuro stared at the blue-haired girl, trying to process everything. The strange arm guards, the iron armour on her shoulders, and the animal fur around her waist and shoulders looked exactly like a character from a game Lazuro often played.

“Could it be that I’m in another world? No… no, that’s impossible. It’s too strange to be real. I mean… I wasn’t even run over by a lorry or died because I regretted working for a dodgy company. I didn’t once hate God, and then get run over by a train, stabbed by a criminal, go to the supermarket, or play a virtual game. Oh shit, what the hell is going on?”

Seeing Lazuro's rambling, the blue-haired girl put her left hand on his forehead.

"Are you sick?" The blue-haired girl tilted her head.

"I'm not sick, you know!" Lazuro slapped the blue-haired girl's hand away, his face flushed.

"But your face looks red."

Lazuro sighed, took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. He thought again and decided to dig deeper.

"Is there anyone else here besides you?"

"Yes, we hunt every two months. Would you like to meet my group? I'm just about to take my first hunting test. If you could help me carry this, I'd be very grateful." The blue-haired girl pointed to a large rabbit in a tree.

Lazuro pushed the stick he was carrying on his belt towards the strange rabbit that the white-haired girl had just killed. As he lifted the rabbit, Lazuro realised why the blue-haired girl had asked him for help.

"It's really heavy," Lazuro grumbled.

“Ah, thanks for your help. Let's go camping then. It's not far from here.”

With heavy steps, Lazuro tried to keep up with the blue-haired girl.

“My name is Aicela Frost. I am in possession of the mythbreaker beast type Yuki Onna.”

“Mythbreaker?” Lazuro looked confused.

“Could it be that you don't know anything about Mythbreakers? You're definitely not a Turtlelian? If there are no Mythbreaker where you live, what do you use to hunt? How do you survive in this beast-populated world?” Aicelia asked curiously.

“We don't hunt. If we want to eat, we buy food at the market or the supermarket. Besides, why ...."

Lazuro stopped and stared at the rabbit he was carrying. Suddenly, Lazuro put the rabbit down and took his smartphone out of his pocket. He tried to switch it on, but it was dead.

“What… ... what is that… ... what is that metal object… ... that's really weird.” Aicelia looked curious.

"Although the last time I checked, the battery was still at about eighty per cent. So what? If I'm in another world, can I charge my mobile phone, or is there internet? No ... this is absolutely crazy." Lazuro scratched his hair roughly.

"Phone, another world, what do you mean?"

Lazuro knelt down, and thought about the life he had to leave behind. Apart from the comforts of technology, Lazuro would also have to leave the mother he loved. Suddenly, a crunching sound in the grass made Lazuro stand up again.

"W... is that another monster?" Lazuro pulled at the wood on his hip.

While he was on guard, a red-haired man appeared and rubbed his head.

"Tristan, what are you doing here?" Aicelia asked, her face full of concern.

"I was just ..." The red-haired man, whose name was Tristan, smiled awkwardly.

"Did you sneak onto the goods train to get to the Underworld?" Aicelia put her hands on her hips.

“This … By the way, who's that? I’ve never seen him before. Maybe he’s a denizen of the underworld. I knew there was life in the underworld.” The hairy man took Lazuro’s hand and smiled.

“That..." Lazuro scratched the back of his head.

“Don’t try to change the subject!”

Tristan put a finger to his mouth, and Lazuro realised why.

“I told you..."

“Aice, shut up for a moment!” Lazuro whispered, his tone slightly snide.

The atmosphere became so still that everyone could feel the violent shaking of the ground. The three of them looked around silently and cautiously. Their attention finally fell on a tree that had been knocked over by a fifteen-foot lizard with two tiny arms. The lizard had sharp teeth and flames flickered from its head to its toes.

The creature, which Lazuro recognised as a T-rex, bent down and sniffed the rabbit that Aicelia had just killed. Its mouth opened wide, and with one quick gulp, the rabbit was chewed to pieces. Lazuro swallowed hard, his trousers already soaked with urine. Lazuro closed his eyes, and prayed that the creature would disappear, that he would wake up from this nightmare. But the icy cold air forced Lazuro to open them.

"I'm going to die."

The T-Rex in front of Lazuro moved away slightly and opened its mouth wide.

"Damn it, ice crystal!"

Aicelia reacted quickly, raising her staff and throwing an ice prism at the T-Rex's eye, causing it to roar in pain. Lazuro and the others took the opportunity to run away, covering their ears. The T-Rex shook its head briefly and set off in search of Lazuro and the others. Due to its long range, it didn't take long for the T-rex to spot Lazuro.

"It's the burning T-rex. Hurry up and scatter!" Shouted Tristan.

When they heard Tristan, Lazuro and Aicelia immediately took a different path. Unfortunately, this probably only distracted the Burning T-Rex for a moment, because with its long legs, it would have had no trouble catching all three of them.

"Taunt!"

A blonde figure with a shield appeared, and the T-Rex, which had been concentrating on chasing Lazuro, suddenly stopped. The flaming T-Rex glared at the large shield-bearing man with the bull's headdress and roared angrily.

"Come here, you idiot!" mocked the shield-bearing man taunted.

The burning T-Rex roared angrily and then took a quick step towards the shield-bearing man, causing a violent tremor to erupt around him. The creature's mouth opened, and its body writhed, ready to devour the shield-bearing man.

"Paul!" shouted the shield-bearing bearer.

The moment the shield-bearing bearer shouted, an arrow shot out and hit the Burning T-Rex in the head. The burning T-Rex's head froze, but its movements did not stop. The flames on the Burning T-Rex's back flared, up and melted the ice on its head. The Burning T-Rex seemed to regain consciousness, as it chased after Lazuro, who was still frozen in fear and looking curiously at the man with the shield-wielding man.

"Damn it, why are you there? Hurry up and go, you idiot!"

Lazuro heard the shield-bearing man shout. But his thin legs were already tired and couldn't move anymore. The shield-bearing man immediately moved again when he saw that Lazuro was still frozen.

"Shield wave!"

The shield-wielding man slammed his shield on the ground. At the same time, a huge wave hit the burning T-Rex's legs, and threw him to the ground. Tristan and Aicela appeared, and took the opportunity to carry Lazuro away.

"Paul, paralyse him!"

The ice arrow fortunately hit the body of the Burning T-rex's and froze it, encased in a block of ice. Seeing this, the man with the shield immediately left and gathered with Tristan, Lazuro and Aice.