The mole goblin stared at me. I stared at it back.

The mole goblin layed low. It remained still.

A new player entered the game.

It watched me warily.

I watched it warily.

I stood there, or rather crawled there, seeing as the rabbit creature knocked me on all fours.

We were but a short distance away. I could see its features with much greater clarity. Likewise for it.

I shuddered.

My eyes darted about.

I caught sight of the surprised adventurers.

My body wouldn't move.

Ah...

Haste must be left at the door.

Although one of its legs were injured, the mole goblin still had the claws that tore through the flesh of Denz. They were pointed and protracted.

The decision to act remained. Deliberating left me unmoving.

Then, suddlenly, goblin ran off.

It didn't run away. No. It ran toward.

Toward me?

No.

It ran toward Denz.

Denz limped and watched as the mole goblin closed the distance. The mole goblin didn't bury underground this time.

It simply ran toward Denz. In five seconds it would reach him.

Denz tried to move away. He stumbled over his exposed legs.

"Crap."

Three seconds until impact.

And then, there I was.

In between them.

"Uraaaaa!!!" I grunted.

When did I move?

Why did I move?

I ask that question, yet the answer was clear.

I felt power surge within me.

Maybe...

The power of the goddess.

I can...

The power to change fates.

No I will...

Don't get me wrong. I only did what anybody would've done, anybody with power, and will.

Fixed between Denz and the mole goblin, I pulled my strength into a punch.

Point blank.

I put my all into that punch.

Combined force.

The law of the strong.

A violent maxim.

I put my all into that punch.

I missed.

It was all or nothing.

I struck nothing.

I was left with nothing but net, and air.

My arm was stuck in the space left of target.

The mole goblin ran into me.

Our bodies collided, bouncing off each other a solid distance.

Ah.

I lost consciousness.

___

I woke up in a plain. It was a familiar plain. The grass was green, the sky blue, the air fresh. It was all of that and then some.

My hands stretched behind and beneath me, supporting me up.

I looked up.

I felt the cool breeze.

The sky was dotted with clouds. They did not part this time. Not for rain, or a goddess.

In front of me, amidst a borderless grassy expanse, was a single tree.

It stood tall. Its wood was sturdy. Its aura reminded me of a certain deity of Fortune.

I walked up to it and ran my hands down the trunk.

I felt my heartbeat resonate through the lone figure.

I took a deep breath. The tree breathed with me, and the both of us were refreshed by the abundance of clean air surrounding us.

It was filled tree. Strong, tough, different.

I took a step back and admired it for a while. It was painted with a soft brush, its details exquisitely real. Love and nature oozed out.

Behind it, a comfortable distance away, were a number of saplings.

They didn't do well to stand out, but they were there and theoretically noticeable.

Actually, they were practically noticeable. Not easy distinguishable, however.

I walked up to them. Like the tree, they were animate.

It was something mortally and ordinarily nonexistent.

Nonexistent.

They compelled me to come closer, and closer I came.

Arms length away from one of small sprouts, my hand stretched forward of its own accord.

I touched the sapling.

The grass rustled.

The wind picked up speed.

The sapling in front of me glowed.

Then, it grew.

At unprecedented speed, I watched through high definition lenses the growth, development, and maturation of the sapling.

I jumped back by reflex.

Before, I was basking in white-yellow light. Now, I was covered in the shade of large, grassy wings.

What...

was this?

That thought was overtaken by a feeling. Suddenly, my body filled with something strange.

I looked down at my hands, at my body, and at the ground itself.

What...

was this?

I shot my right hand forward. Like an extension of my body itself, from my palm were large rock spires, much larger than the ones the female mage, Emilia, shot. They were sharper and polished. The spires shot out instantaneously and landed in precisely the spot I envisioned.

It felt as natural as breathing.

No, even more natural, as the extension of whatever feeling this was felt more refined and practiced than even breathing itself.

Every spire shot connected me to something greater.

Every spire shot brought me to a deeper, richer place of being.

The essence filled me, overtook me, and then became a very part of my fabric of being.

It was like a hole was filled within me.

A small space.

More than insignificant.

I didn't laugh. I didn't smile. I didn't do anything of the sort.

I simply looked at my hand. There were countless other saplings around me.

I touched one more, and the same hazyness-turned-clarity process occured.

The sapling matured in what seemed like mere moments.

My body felt different. I sensed the world in greater detail.

In the distance was a rabbit-like creature.

It trekked my way.

I reached my hand toward it, as if clasping for it.

My hand scooped up the air in one fluid motion.

What filled the empty space, in my hand, was the rabbit-like creature.

It didn't struggle to escape.

The puzzle piece of living, breathing, otherworldly flesh fit in my hand.

I released my grip, and the rabbit-like creature fell and scurried away.

This motion...

This technique...

It was a breath near and then some.

No.

Unlike breathing, the level of this motion summoned a will of its own.

Like a heartbeat.

Or stomach pangs.

I sat under the shade of the new tree garden for a while before my consciousness faded out.

Once again.

I woke up looking at the sky.

Under me wasn't grass. It was aged stone, baked under the noon sun.

Two figures towered above me. One male and one female.

They chattered with quick-moving lips and restless legs.

"Look, Emilia, honey-"

"Don't you dare call me 'honey' ever again."

"-Dear-"

"'Dear' is off-limits too."

"-... Partner..?"

"What are you saying? I'm definitely not your 'partner'!"

"... This time I was referring to you as my party member-"

"Use clearer language!"

"Stop yelling! You're going to wake up the boy!"

I was awake.

"Hey! He's awake!" Denz exclaimed.

"Ah..." Emilia muttered. "Also, you're too loud."

Denz clicked his tongue.