Ena's whole body was forcefully dragged into the portal, pulling her into the blue radiance. She looked at her arm, trying to find what had grabbed it, forcing her to enter the portal against her will. But to no avail, there was nothing to look for, only her arm and arm alone.
Her eyes flared open. She had experienced portals many times before, but it was her first time feeling pressure as she entered it. She looked around the area, only to see Haruo on the cliffside with his eyes directed forward at the moon.
"What the hell grabbed me???"
"Never in my life have I met a girl as audacious as you. Twisting my words so you can lounge around at MY place?"
Ena shivered slightly as she turned around to see Kilian sitting atop the portal they came through with tea in his hand.
"Honestly, I'm impressed."
"You snitched on me!?" Her gaze redirected back to Haruo.
"I never told him such a thing."
"What a brat, typical spoiled rich kid, so fast in making assumptions. That's a red flag, y'know? At this pace, no one will ever like you."
"Oh yeah!? Then HOW did you know then!?"
"Simple, I heard it."
A dumbfounded expression only made its way on Ena's face, raising one side of her mouth as she looked up at Killian with nothing more than disbelief.
"As if I believe that. You're saying that you HEARD what I said trillions of miles away from our planet?"
"What else do you think I'm implying?"
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Not for me it isn't."
"Ugh! Fine, I'll admit it, but where the hell are we anyway!?"
As she said it, the blue radiance that ignited the portal soon dissipated with a swirl, making the portal appear as if it were a misplaced archway. She saw the other side of the portal clearly, even placing her hand to test whether it was truly off.
"This is Lunoria, the moon of runes. The most recent planet we discovered and conquered. It was quite expensive too."
"The test is just in three hours, why are we here?"
"Oh, Haru, straight to the point as always, just like your master. This is the place where the test will take place."
"Why not just do it on earth?"
"Last time we did that, a lot of things happened. So we'd rather have it over here than there."
Haruo gazed at the dense, lush forest that covered the whole area from the cliffside. The planet they stood on resembled Earth, but at the same time, it felt foreign to him. The same could be said of the terrain.
Haruo looked down at his feet before sliding a foot to the side; the soil he stood on felt like it was sand. With minimal effort, the ground easily swayed like sand.
"Must be nice to experience something new, huh? Savor it as much as you can. Once you get stronger, that feeling will no longer be as accessible as you think…"
"We still have three hours before the test, correct?"
"Mhmm, so what are you two going to do before it starts?"
With Kilian agreeing, Haruo made his exit by dropping down on the cliffside and entering the dense forest below. Ena only looked at his actions, trailing his figure with wide eyes before it disappeared into the forest.
"Can he do that!?"
"I never said he couldn't. Besides, how else are you guys going to pass the time?"
Through his words, Ena couldn't help but drop her jaw as she looked at Kilian. Clicking her tongue, she furrowed her eyes and went down to follow Haruo into the forest.
As Ena's figure also vanished, Kilian arose from his seated position and walked to the edge of the cliffside. Smiling as he looked down with his tea at hand. Sipping it quite diligently.
***
After falling through endless amounts of leaves, Ena finally touched the ground. She inspected her surroundings, but saw only that the ground was no different from the layers of leaves she had already gone through. It wasn't as crowded as the leaves, but it was definitely still cramped.
"That jerk didn't even wait for me and left me there with that asshole."
She cleaned herself of the leaves from earlier and looked for a route she could navigate through.
'He couldn't have gotten that far anyway…'
She thought to herself twenty minutes ago, and yet no trace of Haruo was found. At this point, she began to feel irritated and considered whether she should give up and return to the cliffside…
'... Or better yet, just burn the entire forest.'
The trunks of the trees were very wide and thick, not to mention the fact that the trees were very close to one another.
"Yeah, maybe I should just burn this entire forest! What type of trees even are these!? This place makes me feel like I'm cave diving!!!"
To her frustration, a silhouette of a person was caught at the corner of her eye. She turned her head to look. And there he was, Haruo, crouched behind a bush, with his eyes focused ahead.
'There's that bastard!'
Ena then swiftly passed through the gap of each tree, speeding up her pace as steadily as she could. And finally, she made it behind Haruo. She looked at his face, purely focused on what was in front of him. Not wasting any more time, Ena raised her hand.
'You deserve at least this much!'
The whole reason why she hadn't called out his name earlier was for this exact reason…
'...TO SMACK HIM WHILE HE'S DISTRACTED!!'
She brought down her hand, aiming it directly at his crown. But it never reached his head, but instead his hand.
Haruo had caught her hand while focusing elsewhere.
"Calm down, will you?"
"CALM DO—"
Before she could speak any further, Haruo had used Ena's own hand and placed it on her mouth to prevent her from creating even more noise.
"Be quiet, too." He whispered.
"Calm down!? Do you know how many times I got stuck trying to find you!?" Ena hissed.
"Well, I never really told you to come with me, did I?"
"Then at least tell me why you went off like that!?"
"I'm hungry."
"Seriousl—" Growl…
Haruo redirected his gaze away from what he was focused on and stared at Ena. Both looked at each other awkwardly as her stomach continued to growl. Both of them stayed silent, even after the growling stopped, and gave each other a solemn expression. After that moment, Haruo went back to what he originally gazed at.
"Not a bad plan…"
It was only then that Ena would share Haruo's perspective and try to view what he was so focused on.
"So what exactly are we looking at?"
"Just wait…"
Ena contemplated for a bit, staring at nothing but a clear area that had nothing but vegetation around. Other than being a place without all the crampiness of the dense forest, there was nothing else that made it unique, especially when it came to the subject of food.
Feeling a bit disappointed, Ena scoffed and glared at Haruo, but within that moment, a silhouette started to form within the clear space. It wasn't obvious at first, but with a closer look, an outline traced the space, and slowly an animal began to reveal itself onto both of them.
There, a large brown-furred animal came into view, with three horns, one on each side of its head and another at its forehead. It resembled something like a goat, but had a smaller and more timid structure. Its hooves were twice as large as those of a regular goat, and its tail was as long as a human forearm.
"Are you sure that's edible?"
"It can turn invisible, triggering whenever it senses danger through the vibration of its large hooves. Its main source of food is the vines of the tree around it…"
"Okay, and? How does that connect to whether it's edible or not?"
"It's a herbivore, not to mention that Invisibility it uses is a defense mechanism that allows it to hide itself… that means it's a prey in the food chain. That was the only thing I found during my time watching it… I'm sure that thing is edible."
"What are we just doing here then? Let's eat!"
"I would've attacked right away, but you came in along and almost scared it away. I had to wait till it's out of the invisibility and calm you down. Any sudden movements or noise would've driven the animal away while it was invisible."
After his explanation, Ena nodded and carefully watched the animal together with him.
"What are you doing? Use your knives and throw it at their hocks or ankles."
***
After their successful hunt, Haruo cooked the meat of the animal over the fire. Of course, he cut the meat into carefully sliced pieces so he could cook it in the most efficient and savory way.
As he waited for the meat to cook, he opened his mana storage and took out a seasoning packet, then ripped it before sprinkling it all over the meat.
Both ate diligently as it was their first meal of the entire day, especially after their fight with Kilian. Though their bodies were returned to a normal state—removing all injuries from their bodies—their hunger remained and demanded food.
Haruo sighed and fixed his posture, placing his hand on the ground as a support while he adjusted. Yet for some unknown reason, he felt quite uneasy. Haruo couldn't really tell what made him feel that way, and only pressed the ground more firmly.
'Hm…? Wasn't the soil supposed to be… soft?'
Unbeknownst to him, his hand suddenly became heavy and stuck tightly to the ground. The ground was sucking a large portion of his mana away. He widened as he temporarily blocked his meridian from his hand, making it so that his mana couldn't travel to his hand.
But it was already too late, the ground had had its own fill. Only then did Haruo realize what was below them.
"JUMP!!"
"Huh?"
Ena gazed toward Haruo, with her mouth still chewing on some meat.
A large portion of the ground had disappeared, and a large hole appeared, preparing to swallow them whole. Ena lost her center of gravity and began to fall towards the abyss that suddenly appeared. Haruo, despite being early to react, was already too late before he noticed.
"GAK!!— I can't breathe!!"
Haruo gazed at Ena, her face slowly turning a pale blue color. She grabbed her throat tightly as she hit her own chest. Haruo sighed at the sight and hurled himself midair to be near Ena.
"I told you finding a river first was important."
He said before grabbing a canteen from his mana storage. Without hesitation, he shoved the water into Ena's mouth and waited for the water to wash the food away.
Ena then turned her head sideways before using her sleeve to wipe herself.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO DROWN ME!?"
"The situation was dire, so I thought I needed to speed things up for a bit."
"Who cares!? This place is probably just a hundred feet deep! We can easily survive that!"
"The only problem with that logic is that we can't see the ground or know how deep this place actually is. If we can't get the timing correctly, we might actually die. Not to mention you were choking."
The wind flew over their entire body as they continued to descend lower into what swallowed them. Haruo quickly released the pressure point that blocked mana flow into his arm; if he hadn't, his arm would've died and turned into a corpse on its own.
After allowing his arm to breathe once more, he took one of Ena's hidden blades from her clothing before grabbing Ena by the waist as she was still suffocating for a bit. He planted the knife on the edge of the pit, which slowed down the fall.
Minutes passed, and the ground seemed to be nowhere near; by now, all the light that came from above no longer lit the cave as it once had when they were still on the surface. Now they were only met with darkness ahead.
"We've been falling for so long now, this is getting annoying."
"Be patient."
"HOW CAN I BE PATIENT IN A SITUATION LIKE THIS!?"
"We've only been falling for 14 minutes, we'll reach the end soon—I think."
"Oh, you think!? Haha! Yeah, you think! 'YoU ThInK'! This is getting tedious! I can't believe you have the audacity to say we'll reach the end soon, but say 'You think' in the end!"
Haruo replied by sighing; he would've liked it if his hands were available so he could pinch his nose bridge, but both were currently occupied with their own roles. Ena only kept mumbling to herself as they both waited for the ground to appear.
The blade was about to wear out from the constant grind. Usually, it would stop at a certain point, but due to carrying two people instead of one, the blade couldn't handle the weight and kept falling.
"...!"
"...!"
But unbeknownst to them, the blade suddenly halted their descent. Haruo, after further investigation, realized what caused it.
'The wall is gone… That means from this point…'
The wall was discontinued, and the blade was currently hooked at its edge, which was holding them both together.
"I'm letting go."
"What? HUH!? Hold on, you can't be serious!" She said as she tightened her grip on Haruo. "We're going to die if yo—"
She was cut off once again by his sudden actions. As Ena was about to scream, a thud echoed throughout the cave, and with it came pain across Ena's whole back. They had reached the ground.
Haruo, picking up a stick that had fallen with them through the depths. Using friction, he made a fire, creating light that let them see through the darkness. Ena groaned quietly before standing up beside Haruo.
"Y-you could've at least let me prepare! Ow… Where even are we…"
Ena caressed her waist as she took a glance around the place they had fallen. Ena couldn't see well as the room was still dim despite the fire lighting the surroundings. As she took a step further, she saw intricate designs carved onto the walls.
"We're in a tomb."