(we must absolutely never make a enemy of him, if we do i feel like that would be the end of the kingdom, and most of the inhabitants, luckelly the G.o.ds only blessed us with one Qiton, so if we can get him to work for us we would never need to worry about any future wars)

looking over at Viktor, Alice could see he had reached the same conclusion and after exchanging a nod they ran over to Dax

"h-hey Dax what was that! i didn't expect you to defeat the trolls so easily, good job!"

"yeah that was really amazing, how did you kick that troll so hard? and the you court that other trolls club so easily, that was impressive!"

"[iT waS THe LeASt i COuLd dO, dOn'T MEnTion It]"

Dax's and ICI's voices still overlapped when he wore a strained smile, coursing Viktor and Alice to stare at him with a confused look.

"what happend to your voice?"

"yeah i was wondering that as well Alice, didn't it start just before the fight? is it some kind of magic?"

"[oH ThiS? IcI wE're dOne]"

[LIMITED COMBAT MODE TERMINATINADED]

"it's not really 'magic' per say but technology, i can synchronize my counsusnes with ICI greatly improving my mental capacity and allow me to use much more of my strength safely. normally my strength is highly limited in low gravity or surrounded by soft things"

"soft things?"

"my pistol, that rock over there, your head when i patted it earlier. it's all a question about scale"

as a demonstration Dax picked up a rock and crushed it like soft clay with a single hand

"in short ICI regulates and limits my strength outside combat and enhances my tactical awareness and response speed in combat"

"..."

Alice and Viktor just stared at him looking confused

"i get stronger and faster, but i'm still in control"

"but is it magic?"

"no Viktor it's not magic, i can't even use magic, i don't even know what that is"

"well it did look a bit like strengthening magic"

"body what?"

now it was Dax's turn to look confused

"strengthening magic, it's the basic of basics even Alice can do that"

"HEY!"

"s-sorry but it's true"

"i'm pretty sure i told you guys already but what is this 'magic' stuff"

"yeah sorry we never did tell you about that, Viktor can you explain?"

"magic is the base of our world, we use it in daily life to light fires, make water flow and grow crops and to heal our wounds, we call that life magic. in combat we command the local elements, summoning fire, water and rock to destroy enemy armies, we call that attack and defence magic depending on the use, but magic also works internally, strengthening muscles and the mind, sharpening one's mind, we call that strengthening magic"

"what are the conditions for using attack and defence magic?"

"first you need to chant, well i say 'chant' but it's more like gathering mana in the area and taking control of one of the 3 elements before you use it for either offence or defence, then it's just a case of commanding the elements to use for you"

"if it's called chanting then why is there no chanting?"

"because it was normal to chant up until about 100 years ago, until a elven sage revolutionized chanting by making specialized magic runes and indgravering them in magic crystals that you just need to channel mana into to complete the chant, we call those catalysts. well in special cases you would still need to chant but that's only for extremely large scale magic"

standing with closed eyes Dax appeared to try and absorb the new knowledge for a moment until he opened his eyes and started asking questions

"how large of a scale are we talking about?"

"large enough to level cities, but only a handful of people in this world can pull that of"

"what about strengthening magic?"

"i don't really know about that, Alice is more of a expert on that subject"

"strengthening magi doesn't require a chant, it's more like a reflex that you need to train and train forever, but once you have learned it its very useful, staying awake for days and running for long distances without tiring is just a small feat when you have mastered it"

"that kind of overwork sounds painful"

"yeah it kinda is, but i'm used to it, the pain usually goes away after sleeping for a while, that's why i always sleep for a few days after a patrol, unless SOMEONE wakes me up it's fine"

"i'm sorry"

"it okay let's just complete this mission so i can go back to sleep, aaaah why didn't i just quit? i have the money and even if i didn't i could just find a husband, wait could i even do that? my body is not really womanly per say but-"

"she gonna go on for a while so you can just ignore her, anyway we need to get back to Black Hollow, it's this way i think follow me"

"- am i really not attractive? i mean my chest is kinda small, but i'm confident in my hips. don't some guys like th- hey, HEY! don't leave me behind, it's not that way it's this way"

snapping back to reality Alice noticed that the guys were leaving her behind and started running after them and starting to act like a proper guide.

after about 2 hours Alice and Viktor followed by Dax broke the tree line and in the distance they could see Black Hollow surrounded by ma.s.sive walls and several farms around the city, as they moved closer Dax started drawing the attention of serval farmers with his large frame and weird clothes.

"hey is that a demon?"

"i don't know, but isn't that a ranger in the lead? there's no way a ranger would lead a demon towards the city"

"huh, maybe it's some kind of beastkin?"

"must be, we don't see many of them around here, i'm gonna tell my son about that when i get home"

"looks like i'm attracting a lot of attention, is this gonna be a problem?"

"it's no problem, i'm technically a highly ranked ranger is it's all fine! besides it's not like anything can really stop you"

"technically you have been demoted several times because of unruly conduct"

"i can hear you Viktor!"

"hiii! i'm sorry but it's the truth"

"come on kids, calm down let's get to the gate before it closes"

""we're not kids!""

"in my eyes you are, come on let's go the geats are closing in a bit right?"

about 10 minutes later they reached the main gate at the outer wall. the about 50 meters high brown wall had lots of discolorations stemming from what appeared to be years of repair and battle, the only thing striking Dax as unique was several large blue glowing circle patterns placed at regular intervals and how the wall appeared to made of only compressed dirt.

"this wall is impressive, but how the h.e.l.l was it build, with 'magic'?"

"yeah it was made with large scale magic, it took a team of royal mages about a month putting up segments and reinforcing them with runes, see? that's one up there"

pointing at one of the glowing circular glowing rune on the wall with a excited look, Viktor started explaining about the wall.

"but isn't that a huge weak point? i'm guessing that 'rune' thing is what keeps the structure standing, it's practically just a huge target"

"that's what so brilliant about it! you see it's a two way rune system, so if the outer rune fails a inner one takes over"

"and if that one fails?"

"then another rune freezes the whole wall segment and keeps it frozen for a week until repairs can be made, it's really amazing! it was designed by this awesome half elf mage from the royal guard"

"all of this is very interesting but we need to get to the gate now guys"

hurrying on to the gate Dax quickly found himself staring down multiple speartips with scarred gate guards behind.

"hold still d-demon! now tell us why you're here!"

"HEY i told you that he's not a demon already! captain Russell told me to bring Dax to him"

"he's a qiton not a demon, let him go already"

"Alice stay away please, you're clearly under some sort of spell, you too Viktor i've never heard of this 'qiton' race before"

[WARNING. TREATS DETECTED: MOVE. AWAY. NOW.]

"sorry, SORRY please don't stab me with that! it was a poor joke, ICI disregard any further aggression"

because of ICI's poorly timed warning the guards were now even less likely to let him enter the city, Dax gave a slight sigh as tried to figure out a solution to his present problem

"okay how about we just all calm down okay, you guys clearly don't trust me and nothing Alice or Viktor says is gonna change that right? so i suggest you guys do what you need me to do and Alice and Viktor go on in and report to captain Russell and then everyone wins. okay?"

"we need you to leave this city and never come back, please"

"that i can't do i need to talk to this captain Russell, also please stop poking me with that spear it's ineffective, Alice do you have a jail or something you could leave me in so these guys can feel safe while you talk with Russell"

"no! you leave this city now! i'm not gonna ask you again, just go away you f.u.c.king demon!"

apparently tired from discussing matters with the demon one of the younger guards charged at Dax and stabbed his spear in Dax's stomach

"what are you doing! Dax he didn't mean it so please don't be mad!"

"that's it i'm so done, let's get a move on Alice where's the jail?"

Dax being extremely p.i.s.sed that one of the guards tried to kill him and started to walk past the gate, completely ignoring the guards trying to kill him as they pointlessly tried to stab him to death.

"Alice is it this or that way to the jail? also stop that you guys are not gonna hurt me"

"what the h.e.l.l is this demon made of! i can't pierce it's skin!"

"Alice!"

"y-yeah it's that way just around the corner"

"okay let's go"

"go for its eye!"

"oh that the one thing you don't get to do, don't you f.u.c.king dare this is my only eye i have left"

continuing along the wall while blocking guards from stabbing spears in his eye, he soon found himself in front of a series of rusty metal cages standing along the inside of the outer wall, most of them empty but a few housed what appeared to be vagents or drunks sobering up for the night. picking a empty cage away from the other prisoners, Dax entered the cage and sat down inside, closed his eye and crossed his legs.

"i'm gonna stay here until you guys get that captain of yours down here to let me out"

"and if we can't convince him to do that?"

"i'll just stay here, i don't age remember? oh and these guards can keep trying to kill me until they die of old age, everyone wins right?"

Alice and Viktor made their way back to Russell's office as the sun was setting, and after Alice pushed her way past several other rangers she explained everything that had happened to her and Viktor over the last few days

"you honestly expect me to believe that, like a single piece?"

"yeah we do"

"that what appears to be a demonkin now locked in a cage down at the outer gate is actually an alien from another world?"

"yes"

"Viktor you can leave us"

"what why!?"

"just leave please, orders from your superior"

"okay i got it, see you later Alice"

as Viktor left it was just Alice and Russell in the room, Russell stood up and closed the curtains and placed a runestone on the table before pouring mana into it and only stopping when the stone emitted a faint purple glow

"did it threaten you? there's no eyes or ears on us now"

"he… didn't, well he did scare me a bit when he annihilated those tolls"

"is it gonna be a treat?"

"if we anger him the kingdom might not survive"

"is it-he is really that strong?"

"i believe so, and he's smart i feel like he's looking through any lie we tried to tell him, when we were scared of him he saw right through us"

"and what was his reaction?"

"looked like a mix between sadness and disappointment in himself. and then there's that other voice it's something else, what it told Viktor seemed to shake his very foundation and excite him at the same time, told him something about how they believe the world to work and from what Dax showed makes me think we could use the help"

"how could he help us?"

"i believe he's completely capable exterminating any and all monsters near this area alone. with his bare hands, and then there's the healing, i saw him heal a pretty deep cut on his arm almost instantly and even if he wears a eyepatch over his one eye it's very likely that he can still see out of it, it's likely that he could even heal Terra"

"that's all well and good but can we trust him?"

"yes."