Finding and killing a single steelfeather swallow was easy. Even easier than killing the moonlight panther had been. Of course, I wasn’t lucky enough to get a second magic card out of the bird, but I wasn’t really after one either. Otherwise, we could have just hunted around until we found one that gave the signs off a powerful soul.

Still, I was able to get what I wanted, the monster card itself. With that in our possession, Ashara and I quickly turned to fly back into the forest. We couldn’t afford to waste any time, with the risk that the bird’s flock might notice the traces of battle and swarm us.

Along the way, Ashara was letting out a hearty laugh, her head lowered with her horns pointed forward. More than once she just barely managed to avoid driving her horns directly into a tree. “Alright, what’s so funny?” I asked with a groan as I sped up to fly next to her, causing her to smirk towards me.

“We went through all of that… All that preparation, all of that expectation… for that?” She asked, pointed towards the pouch at my waist where the monster card was being stored.

“Was it… a bit too small?” I asked as I glanced down towards the pouch myself. Even when the create was at its full size, it could easily fit in the palm of my hand. At most, it was six inches long, and half of that had to have been its tail.

“Oh, it was small, alright.” She teased, laughing again. “I can’t believe you had me so worried because of that little guy.”

“Let’s just find somewhere we can roost for the day, so we can get the fusion ceremony underway.” I said with another groan, shaking my head. “I’ll probably need your help to fuel it, since I’m working with second tier cards.”

She raised a curious brow at me, but ultimately nodded her head in agreement. I could feel the drowsiness starting to set in, and knew that it wouldn’t be too much longer before the sun rose. “It’d be great if we could find a burrow, but no way would that be safe all day…”

“Maybe your little friend can watch over us?” Ashara asked, her grin returning. Much to my own dismay.

It didn’t take long before we had to settle for sleeping in a high branch. We could see the sky starting to brighten on the horizon, and knew that daylight was only minutes away. Once we landed, we both immediately put on our sunglasses so that the light would not damage our eyes while we slept.

This time, both Ashara and I anchored ourselves to the tree with our tails, though we did sleep in each other’s embrace. Even though it wasn’t on a bed, it just felt weird to fall asleep alone the last few weeks. I closed my eyes beneath the sunglasses as I rested my head against her chest, my arms around her waist just as hers were around mine.

The next thing I knew, there was a cool breeze along the back of my wings, and a gentle tingling running through my head as my horns were caressed. “Good night, sleepy head.” Ashara said in a soft tone as she noticed my beginning to stir.

“What time is it…?”

“Sun’s been down for about an hour now, I think. I haven’t been up long myself.” She answered, shaking her head. “But it’s a good thing your horns aren’t that sharp. You were poking me in the chin when I woke up!”

Hearing her teasing tone, I blinked my eyes to wipe away the sleep, taking my sunglasses off and storing them in my vest pocket. Unfortunately, we hadn’t been able to get sunglasses made for us on Deckan, so they didn’t have the convenient storage feature. “Well… think you’re ready for the big event?” I asked, reaching down towards the pouch containing my cards.

“Hmm… sure. Though can we eat after we’re done?” Ashara asked, glancing down to her bare stomach. “We skipped dinner because we were flying last night, and I’d like to have something before we head back home.”

I gave a small chuckle as I heard that, leaning back and nodding my head. “Sure, we still have some rations packed.” Her face seemed to pale as she heard that. “Oh, they’re not that bad. Besides, pretty sure neither of us know which fruits are edible here. So this is just to hold us over till we get back.”

“Fine…” She grumbled dejectedly, before shaking her head. “Let’s see what your new partner looks like. You planned to mix him with the moon card, yeah?”

I nodded my head, pulling out four cards. They were the fusion, summon, moon, and the steelfeather swallow… “He said that cards can be used to enhance a summon, but it’s really only suggested to do so when the summon is first made. Otherwise, the cards could explode.”

“You’re just telling me this now?!” Ashara called out with wide eyes, glancing at the four cards as if I were holding a time bomb.

“Relax. Like I said, that’s only if I did it later. If I do it all now, there shouldn’t be a problem.” I smiled slightly as I said that, holding up the fusion card. “But seriously, Ashara, I’ll need your help with this.”

Ashara’s face grew more serious, nodding her head as she lifted one hand to place it against the back of the card. “Just tell me what to do.”

I let out a breath of relief when I saw that she was cooperating. “Just put your mana into this card, and keep it at a steady pace until I say stop. If you run low, it’s okay to stop early.”

She still had her determined expression when she heard that, and I could feel a trickle of mana starting to work its way into the card. Purple and black lights began to stretch out in a vortex between our two hands. Soon, the card itself vanished entirely, leaving only the vortex that we were fueling with our mana.

When I saw this, I got to work immediately. Next, I placed the summon card into the vortex, causing the purple within it to shift to blue. From what I learned, this should mean that the card was accepted, and the fusion was now in ‘summoner mode’.

The order of cards here was important. To create a summoning card, the first used in the process had to be the summon itself, while the last had to be the creature. So for the third card, I placed the moon magic card in the vortex, watching as it was swallowed up. Across from me, I could see Ashara’s expression become more and more focused, and I knew that she was pushing herself.

Rather than telling her to stop, knowing that she wouldn’t listen, I hurried for the final card, the bird itself. Once I placed it into the vortex, the blue and black swirl of energy collapsed in on itself. “Stop!” I called out, and Ashara’s face began to relax as she stopped the flow of mana.

Between our two hands was once again a card. However, the image of this one seemed faintly different compared to the original. A steelfeather swallow had a dark grey feather coat with a metallic sheen. This one’s feathers had become much lighter, its wings seeming to have grown slightly as well.

Furthermore, the name on the card was different, indicating that the fusion had really been a success. No longer was it a steelfeather swallow, as it had changed to become a moonsilver swallow instead. It was impossible to really tell the difference in its ability based purely on the name that the card was given, but I had to hope that this was an upgrade.

“Huh… it seems cuter now.” Ashara said as she leaned over, looking down at the picture. However, she quickly lifted her head up to me, holding one hand out with her palm up. “Ration.” She said, and I could faintly hear a low rumbling from her direction.

Laughing, I pulled another card out of my pocket and passed it to her, one that contained a piece of jerky. These were the easiest rations to pack, as they did not risk spoiling in their card form. However, Ashara’s face still scrunched up as she called out the meal and began eating.

Once we were done eating, we once again began flying. However, this time there was no need to search for monsters below the trees, so we immediately rose above the canopy. Off in the distance, we could barely see the compound, still most of a night’s flight away.

One thing that had been made painfully obvious to us when we flew out of the campus this time was that this world was far larger than our own. I didn’t know why the gravity seemed the same, but the horizon was several times as far away as we were used to. So when we were this high up, around two hundred meters above the ground, we could easily see out to a distance of hundreds of kilometers.

From where we were, the compound seemed like a tiny smudge of grey in the distance. We could even see other cities off on the very edge of the horizon. Each one seemed like the smallest of specks, barely even able to get our attention.

“You’re not going to summon the little guy out to fly with us?” Ashara asked curiously, maintaining her speed so that she was flying directly next to me.

I shook my head briefly to deny her words. “I have to give it time. At least an hour or so. That way the energies in the card have time to charge up.”

Ashara looked confused by my explanation, but she didn’t try to press for more details. Most likely, this was her first time actually interacting with a magic card. Especially since her chosen classes didn’t rely on them.

As we flew, we noticed a faint light beginning to shine in the distance, coming from the compound that we were moving towards. I was about to ask Ashara what she thought when I heard a sudden cry from her. “Down!” She yelled, pulling her wings in and diving for the canopy.

Alarmed, I followed after her, unsure of what was so urgent. When I ducked below the canopy, I saw her standing on a branch with her back to its tree. She was panting for breath, her face pale as sweat trickled down it. She seemed… horrified.

“What just happened?” I asked in as soft a tone as I could manage, landing on the branch with her. This was the first time I had ever seen her make this kind of face. Even with her personality, there was no way that this could be part of a prank.

“M...Monster.” She muttered, her voice shaking. “Ashley… just told me. One came through.”

“That shouldn’t be too bad, right?” I couldn’t help but question. The strongest people from all of Deckan were guarding the gate. Even if a strong monster came through, they should be able to get rid of it before it drew too much attention. At least, that’s what I thought before her next words.

“Level… level four hundred.” I felt as if something had struck my head, my tail lashing out to grab the branch while I nearly tumbled over. “Ashley said… level four hundred. Don’t go… We’ll only die.”

The highest level we had ever heard of was someone in the early two hundreds… And he was a battle maniac who fought his way to that level until his bones and muscles were too dense to even move. Now we hear about a monster that is twice that level?!

I wanted to ask if maybe she misheard, but the fearful expression on her face showed that that was not the case. “Did… did the goddess say anything else?”

Ashara pressed her back against the tree, sliding down it until she was sitting. Her eyes began to water, her arms trembling as they held the branch below us. “Everyone… is already dead.”

I felt my entire body go stiff as I heard that. The monster had appeared for less than five minutes, but it had already killed everyone in the entire compound? I couldn’t even begin to imagine how strong it must be for that.

Looking up, I saw a faint golden mist traveling through the night sky, a mist I hadn’t seen for months. “They’re calling in the Sky Citadel to kill it…” Ashara spoke, not even looking up, just relaying the message from the goddess. “She said… a creature like this is too much. It could… kill everything. They had to stop it themselves.”

“Why couldn’t they just stop it from coming through in the first place then?” I couldn’t help myself from asking that, looking towards Ashara. I felt the ground shaking long before I heard the sound, like a dozen claps of thunder in the distance. I could only guess that that was the sound of the Sky Citadel destroying the monster… and probably the entire compound with it.

Ashara looked blankly at me, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks. She seemed like she wanted to know that answer. And when she told it to me, it sounded like she didn’t believe it herself. “She said… they didn’t know it was coming through the gate… until it was too late. It took too long to summon the Sky Citadel, and they couldn’t evacuate in time…”

“But… that’s our home.” I muttered, glancing down at the branch. “Our friends. Everyone we know in this world. Literally everyone… What do we do now?”

As I asked that, I found myself sliding forward on the branch, shifting until I was leaning against Ashara. Even with our height difference, she buried her head in my shoulder and began to sob loudly. In just a single moment, a single flash of thunder… we were homeless.