Well, this settles it, Lukas mentally sighed. This isn’t my world.

“Your ability to grasp the obvious is astounding.”

The battle between the strange blonde girl— who’d introduced herself as Tanya, a rather human name —and Inanna had come to a rather anticlimactic end when the goddess had performed a thrall on her. The exact mechanics weren’t clear to him, but from what he understood, she had dominated the girl’s mind with her own power.

Apparently, it was like the mind-control powers in comics and games, only more subtle. And real.

He glanced towards the blonde, quickly averting his gaze when their eyes met. Truth be told, he had no idea just what the extent of these powers were. The girl hadn’t turned into a mindless automaton, waiting to follow his orders like Loki in the Marvel movies had made it look. Instead, she was just constantly giving him this strange look, sort of like a middle-ground between ‘who-the-hell-is-this-loser’ and ‘how-did-I-get-stuck-in-this-mess’.

At least he was back in control of his body. Not that he was complaining or anything. As useful as it was to have the goddess take charge and fight superior opponents, he liked his freedom far too much to complain.

Freedom to control his own body, that is.

He hadn’t really questioned the resident goddess about the sudden switch. Knowing her, she’d probably scoff and say something disparaging about his mortality, followed by how she didn’t want to inhabit a lower-life form for a second longer than absolutely necessary.

Inanna chuckled inside his mind. Loudly.

What, he grinned. Did I hit too close to home?

He didn’t expect an answer back. So, naturally, the goddess replied.

“It is refreshing to see someone aware of their position on the food-chain. But no. That was not the reason.”

Then?

Lukas had to actively remember to keep his conversations mental. Unlike before, there was a living, breathing person around that could hear him. Though how the girl was able to understand English was a mystery in itself. Come to think of it, how was he able to understand what she said too?

“You forget that this form of mine is inevitably restricted by the pendant you bear on your person. Possessing your frail body and exerting my powers took a toll on my relic, and your silly world was so very lacking in faith that—”

Five words or less, please.

Inanna let out a long-suffering sigh. “It ran out of charge.”

Lukas visibly spluttered. What— what the hell does that even mean?

“Did I not use the proper mortal expression?” Inanna frowned. “It means I did whatever I could to balance the scales. From now on, you are on your own. At least until we are able to find me an appropriate source of power.”

And what would be considered a proper power source?

Her emotions felt conflicted. Somewhat.

“This anomaly would do.”

Excuse me?

“The Omphalos of this anomaly… It would serve as a proper source.”

He wondered whether the Omphalos of the Lostbelt that was his home planet had served as food for the pendant too. Knowing Inanna, it was certainly not out of character for her.

“Your instincts are sharp, mortal. All of the power in that shard was utilized in opening a portal to this place.” Her tone shifted, as arrogance strengthened her voice once more. “However, I see no reason to fret. You are already consuming the anomaly’s treasures.”

“So I might as well consume the whole thing,” Lukas mumbled, finishing her thought.

“Precisely.”

“Consume what?” the blonde spoke up, a curious glint in her eyes.

Damn, he must’ve spoken that last bit out loud. This whole ‘mental conversation’ thing was going to take some time to get used to.

“Uh, nothing.”

The girl merely frowned at him, before looking away.

Now that he had the chance to observe the girl up close, there was no doubt in his mind that she was very polite, pleasant, urbane, and attractive. But only a fool would forget what she truly was. You didn’t show weakness to monsters, and temporary alliance or not, he knew better than to allow her to think she had the upper hand.

“Something the matter?”

He shook his head.

“Then why are you staring at me?”

Just what kind of thrall did you put her under? She seems so… spirited.

“Would you prefer she consider you prey?”

…Thank you for your contribution.

“Where are you from anyway?” the girl asked, looking him up and down. “You certainly don’t look like an adventurer from Haviskali.”

“Haviskali,” Lukas repeated. Was that what the place outside this anomaly was called? “No, not really. I’m—”

“Thought so,” she finished, cutting him off. “Baramunz then? No, you don’t have the right accent. I doubt you’re from Karnegrug or Elmor either. Hmm…”

She just loved to listen to the sound of her voice, didn’t she?

“What does my accent sound like to you?” he asked, feeling incredibly curious. “Also, what language are we currently speaking?”

“Ualbesh of course,” the girl snapped, before her visage twisted in confusion. Then, she spoke again. “Wait, can you still understand me?”

“Of course.”

“And now you speak Loanean,” she sighed. “Just how many lang— wait, what language do you think you’re speaking?”

Now she gets it.

“English,” he replied, deciding to go with the simple truth. There was no harm in it, considering reality— or, at least, his reality —was stranger than fiction. What else was he going to say? That a ruined goddess rented his mindspace and was helping him understand and speak language she didn’t even know to begin with?

“Een-glish…” the girl repeated distastefully. “Sounds crude. Like the misspoken words of a toddler.”

Inanna chortled in his mind.

Whose side are you on? Lukas grumbled, wondering whether she could’ve made the thrall a little more… restrictive. He really could’ve done without the barrage of questions the girl seemed intent on throwing towards him. A more subdued victim would make these discussions non-existent.

“It was entirely within my power, but that would have been rather boring.”

I can’t believe you just said that.

“Come now, mortal. Where is your sense of adventure?”

On vacation, ever since I ditched sanity and listened to you.

“You say the most adorable things.”

“Where are you from?” the blonde repeated.

Really, just what was it with her and her non-stop questioning? He hoped she wouldn’t start demanding his social security number next. Not that this world even had that.

…Did it?

“I come from a faraway land known as California,” he pompously intoned. “However, because of a certain incident, I now find myself inside this anomaly, and have been trying to escape ever since.”

“And what kingdom is this… Californica in?”

“Fornia,” he corrected. “It’s in America.”

“That doesn’t sound familiar to me.”

“It shouldn’t,” he replied, trying to sound as casual as possible. “It’s not on this planet.”

“Planet?” she pursed her lips.

“World, then. It’s not from this world. One could even argue that I’m out of this world,” he chuckled.

“You’re an Outsider,” the girl muttered, staring at him with a mix of skepticism and shock.

“Um… yes? I guess I am.”

“And this— this America… Is it filled with bremetans as well?”

Bremetan. The word stuck out to him. If he recalled correctly, it was the race of one of the monsters he had consumed when the khorkhoi had taken over. Perhaps it was finally time to get some answers about it.

“So what exactly is a bremetan?”

The blonde looked at him like he’d grown a second head.

“You aren’t a bremetan?”

“No, I’m human.” He had almost said American, but ultimately decided that patriotism wasn’t the right way to go here.

“Bremetan,” she shook her head.

“Human.”

“You look like a bremetan. You fight like a bremetan. You speak the bremetan tongue—”

“But that doesn’t make me a bremetan,” he retorted. “I’m human. Hu-man! Got it? Not bremetan.”

“Hi-yuman,” she repeated disdainfully. First Inanna, and now this girl. Just what was it about his world and culture that automatically made others look down at it in distaste?

“Close enough. And I don’t speak the bremetan tongue. I’m just…” he coughed, a slight red dusting his cheeks. “I’m just, ah, magically able to speak all your languages and understand them.” He ignored the blatant look of disbelief on the girl’s face, his gaze moving to the bag on her waist. “And don’t take this the wrong way, but do you have food in there?”

His stomach chose that moment to grumble. Loudly.

Apparently, throwing around that much lifeforce had made him hungry.

His stomach rumbled again.

Very hungry.

The girl’s skepticism melted away into amusement as she untied the bag from her belt. With it removed, he could see her perfect, toned stomach, with just a slight hint of abdominal muscles that ended in a great pair of firm, round—

She raised her eyebrow.

Lukas coughed. So the girl was a perceptive little monster, but so what? It had been months since he’d seen another living human— or bremetan, or whatever she called herself. Besides, nobody mentioned that monsters couldn’t have a great ass.

Inanna snorted.

So I tend to notice these things, he inwardly scowled. Sue me.

Tanya had experienced her fair share of weird.

She’d come far from that scared little girl trembling her bed, listening to an alien force of nature as it told her how becoming a cold-blooded killer was in her nature. Of course, parts of those predictions had already come true, but she had suppressed that side of her thus far.

But this anomaly expedition was the strangest thing. And nothing could have prepared her for it.

She had flickering memories of giving into the Ice, feeling detached as she let Frost take reign of her senses. She remembered asking Zuken and Elena to let her be as the monsters surrounded her. It wasn’t so much altruism as it was a necessity. Once the Frost took over, she was a far greater threat to them than the monsters could ever be.

Everything that happened after that was… shaky.

There was this muddled image of fighting monsters. Killing them. Feeling a sense of relish as she butchered one monster after another, reveling in their pain as shards of ice grew from their bodies, feeding upon their own lifeforce. She felt herself grow stronger with each step, Experience flooding through her schema and boosting her soul capacity.

And then—

And then—

She glanced at the whip, now fallen on the ground. It was a powerful weapon, one beyond her capabilities to wield properly. But when the Ice took over, she could wield it like an extension to herself.

Her memories of the fighting were fuzzy, but she remembered flashes of this… stranger. Of a being that made even the Ice worry as she poured more and more of its lethal power into the fight, only to be pushed back by the stranger and his fire-spells. A pyromancer?

An axe briefly flickered through her mind, but it was nowhere to be seen. Had it been destroyed in the fight? She certainly didn’t recall destroying it. Her whip, on the other hand—

It lay fallen on the ground.

Torn to shreds.

And the person who’d done it was the Outsider. The same man who had proceeded to break out of her thrall and dominate the Ice. That same person was currently sitting on the floor.

Eating her damn lunch.

And there she was, standing before him, her clothes so tattered it could practically be considered skimpy. She engaged him in conversation, answered all of his questions, and was overall being his little bitch because for some reason, she had this weird feeling that it was the right thing to do.

Tanya forced herself to accept the surrealism of it all.

Because there were so many things wrong with this whole picture, and she knew as much. Yet, she couldn’t find it in herself to question any of it. This Outsider, this— this—

“What are you called?” she asked in Feacani. She wasn’t very comfortable with that tongue, but she knew enough to strike a casual conversation.

“Who, me?” the Outsider replied. “I’m Lukas.”

Of course he spoke Feicani too. Did he just somehow know all the tongues of this land? That made no sense, especially since he claimed to be an Outsider from a different world.

Still, it was good to know his name. Lukas. A pyromancer, but not a spiritist. A bremetan by the looks of it, but he called himself human. What other secrets was he hiding?

Tanya resisted the urge to slap herself. She had a spell that could do just that.

Casting it silently, she watched with anxious eyes as her Schema expanded before her eyes.

Lifeforce > 1500

Mana = 0

What— what the fu—

If it were anatomically possible, Tanya’s jaw would have been touching the floor. No mana? Had she cast the spell wrong? No, such a thing was impossible. She’d been casting Analysis spells since she was seventeen years old. Sure, she wasn’t able to remember all of the fight— only bits and pieces, really —but those fierce, raging flames were practically seared into her mind.

Flames that he had cast.

Unless… she thought, a frown on her face. Unless he had cast them without mana.

Was such a feat even possible? To create raging flames of such power with pure lifeforce? Everything she knew told her that such a thing was impossible. So how had he done it?

Just what am I missing here?

Tanya stared at this Lukas character, carefully observing as he sat cross-legged on the ground, munching on her rations without a care in the world.

Silently, she shook her head.

Only time would tell.