As Irene saw something in the distance, Albrecht was quick to follow as well, jogging up the hill. Six hours of non-stop walking, no matter how carefully he controlled the pace, was still painful. His legs ached, his throat was parched, and his stomach grumbled, all physical discomforts that Albrecht never had to suffer from before. Incredible fatigue from pulling all-nighters? Easy. A whole day spent pouring over a subject he had no interest at all? Easy. But business leaders of multinational conglomerates certainly weren’t armor-wearing cross-country-hiking knights, and by the time he got up to that large hill, the youth was more than fine with plopping onto the ground with a thump, turning his head towards the darkening horizon.

It was hard to see, but it was certainly there. He spotted cultivated land, small rectangular bumps that must have been buildings, and even vague shadows moving about in the distance, no doubt the residents of this strange land. A village? A town? It was a bit shitty that it was in the opposite direction they went, but still, Albrecht let out a half-laugh of relief. [color=82ca9d][b]“Look,”[/b][/color] he pointed, [color=82ca9d][b]“There’s south, I guess. Fuck me, guess we’ll double ba-”[/b][/color]

And then, there was a light. Nothing but a glimpse, nothing but a flash. A bright blue shine that light up the distance and disappeared just as soon as it emerged. The knight rubbed his eyes, then narrowed them.

Next was the tremor, deep and strong, running up Albrecht’s spine, his armor clacking together. He turned to the others, raised a brow. An earthquake? Good thing they weren’t by a mountain then. And he couldn’t see any sort of giant creature rushing at them either, so…nothing to worry about.

There was plenty to worry about.

Right as Albrecht stood up, a beam of light shot up from the distance with a tremendous roar, flying up into the heavens itself. The skybeam burned away the darkening day, and, at this distance, with this much flowing out, even he could feel that aberrant tingling now. This was bad news. This wasn’t something any of them were prepared to handle. What the actual shitduggery was this? Like, come fucking on, just give them a break already. Was this some demon portal that would spawn the DARKNESS they had to fight? Was this aliens, coming to completely eradicate the fantasy setting of this place? Was the Goddess just memeing on them at this point, and really just plucked them out of their normal lives and deaths to troll them with random environmental threats?

He allowed himself two seconds to toss unanswered questions against his skull, before refocusing himself by clapping his hands against his cheeks.

That was a bad idea too. His palms were armored.

[color=82ca9d][b]“Ow, crap that stings.”[/b][/color] Albrecht grimaced, a red mark on either side of his cheeks. [color=82ca9d][b]“But I guess that tosses THAT village out of the picture. Let’s uh…stay calm for now and just keep on walking on. I’ll take the front, Jyu-Ni takes the middle and Irene, stay in the back and just keep an eye out for that giant frickin death ray beam. If it looks like it’s growing bigger, gimme a word and we’re fucking booking it.”[/b][/color]

Yeah, sounded good. He nodded once to himself, forcing an overconfident grin on his face.

[color=82ca9d][b]“For now, ladies, let’s keep calm n carry on.”[/b][/color]

If there was one village behind them, there had to be another village in front of them, right? With that in mind, Albrecht plotted a course over more hills, hoping to see another sign of civilization in the distance, hopefully far and away from that ominous pillar of light that gave him the heebie-jeebies.