As I opened my eyes, I found myself standing in complete darkness.

  With nothing else to do, I began walking around.

  Listening to my surroundings, I noticed it sounded similar to running water.

  There was also a weird humming sound that almost resembled the growl of a tiger.

  The two sounds didn’t really mix well together, but it still sent a shiver down my spine when I heard them.

  Walking a bit further, the sounds continued getting louder and louder.

  And after about ten minutes of walking, I found myself standing in front of what appeared to be a white cross. However, the T seemed to be capitalized, so I guess it was a tau cross.

  Kinda weird seeing stuff like this in another world, but I guess cultures with symbols like these exist here, too.

  Walking closer, I found Haiko tied to the cross, unconscious.

  Figuring freeing her might help, I reached my hand out to grab her. But then...

  “Wah-!”

  Sensing something at my side, I jumped back just in time to avoid a giant claw slamming down on the spot I’d been standing mere moments before.

  Turning toward the direction the claw shot out from, all I could see was darkness.

  “So you don’t wanna come out into the light, huh? What a pain.”

  If I had to guess, whatever that claw was attached to was the thing that’s meant to keep Haiko chained up.

  Trying to bring some light into the room, I shot a fireball in the direction the claw came fr,om only for it to vanish into the darkness.

  “Tsk. It’s times like this I wish I knew light magic.”

  Growling in frustration, I took a quick glance around me before pushing some wind magic into my feet. Once I did that, charged at Haiko.

  Just like before, a xlaw came flying out to stop me. Seeing how crazy sharp they were, I gulped down the nervous feeling I was getting in my stomach and dive-bombed onto the cross.

  Grabbing onto it tightly, I found myself leaning onto Haiko’s stomach a little under her chest. While I held on tightly, the claw tried to find a way to rip me off without touching Haiko.

  Taking advantage of its hesitancy, I climbed up past Haiko’s chest and arms before I found myself less than a few inches away from her face.

  Shaking her slightly, I tried waking her up.

  “Hey. Are you in there, Haiko? Come on and get up already.”

  That didn’t seem to be working.

  Cursing under my breath, I tried shaking her a little more, to no avail.

  “Gah. Dammit. You leave me with no choice then.”

  Figuring shaking her wasn’t working, I decided to go with the most childish thing I could possibly think of.

  Popping my finger into my mouth, I covered it in saliva and then stuck it in her finger. This was the power of the wet willy!

  “Kya!”

  Haiko’s eyes immediately shot open as she squealed in surprise.

  “Wow. I can’t believe that actually worked,” I muttered to myself in surprise.

  I honestly only did it because I was getting frustrated trying to wake her up.

  I guess sometimes stupid situations require stupid solutions.

  Blinking a few times, Haiko looked at me, confused.

  “Huh? Savoncho?”

  “I’m glad to see you’re a-WAKE!”

  One of the claws finally managed to grab my shirt, and the claw launched me back several feet.

  “Ah! Savoncho!” shouted Haiko.

  Crashing to the ground, I scratched the back of my head.

  “Oof. That’s gonna hurt in the morning.”

  Cracking my neck, I turned toward the claw, which was digging into the ground in frustration.

  “I guess I have no choice but to deal with you. Otherwise, I’ll never be able to help get Haiko out of here. Haah. Alright, then, whatever you are! Bring it on!”

  Confused, I woke up with a jolt as a strange sensation entered my ear.

  When I came to, I found Savoncho a few inches from my face.

  And then, in what felt like an instant, he was flung away by what looked like a claw of some kind.

  "Ah! Savoncho!”

  Giving him a look of concern, I tried to reach out to him, only to find I couldn’t move my arms.

  “Huh?”

  Looking to my sides, I saw I was constrained to this strange T-shaped thing.

  After crashing into the ground, Savoncho glared at the clawed arm before smirking.

  I couldn’t really understand what he said next, but his words seemed strangely passionate.

  Then, he charged at the giant arm with balls of fire in his hands.

  Tossing them at the arm, Savoncho then used wind magic to launch himself back just in time to dodge the giant arm’s claws from slicing through him.

  Sadly, the fireballs he threw at the arm bounced off as if they were rubber. It seemed whatever this thing was had quite a sturdy exterior.

  “Haiko!”

  “Hm?”

  Hearing him call my name, I noticed he was looking straight at me.

  “Do you think you could help me out here a bit? I don’t know if I can beat this thing using just my own abilities!”

  “Huh? I’d like to, but I can’t move. What am I supposed to do?”

  “You’re asking me that!?”

  Dodging the arm once more, Savoncho pondered to himself for a few moments before giving his thoughts.

  “Well, we’re in your mind right now. Maybe try to free yourself or something?”

  “We’re in my mind?”

  Looking around, all I could see was an empty black void. Does that mean what he said was true?

  Trying to follow what he said, I attempted to free myself.

  As I did so, however, a strange, sickening feeling crawled up my back. And the more I tried to free myself, the worse the feeling got.

  Unable to take it, I gave up on freeing myself before calling out to Savoncho.

  “I can’t! It’s too much for me to handle!”

  “Too much!?”

  Probably growling in frustration, Savoncho fired a slash of wind at the arm, only for the attack to bounce off it once more.

  “Just suck it up! If you don’t push through it, then you’ll never get yourself free!”

  Feeling almost insulted by his words, I tried freeing myself once more.

  However, as I did so this time, rather than a sickly feeling coming over me, instead a sharp pain poked into my back. Letting out a gasp of breath, I stopped trying to free myself, and the pain quickly subsided.

  “Just suck it up!? How was I supposed to do that!?”

  This was what came to my mind. With such unbearable pain like this, how was I supposed to escape?

  Probably noticing the hesitancy on my face, Savoncho let out a frustrated sigh.

  “Look, I get it probably hurts a lot. But is now really the time to worry about how much it hurts?”

  “Huh?”

  What did he mean by that?

  “Right now, there are people outside this place fighting to free you. And if you can’t push through the pain to free yourself, how are they supposed to keep fighting to save you?”

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  Wait…People are fighting to save me from outside?

  “I may not understand everything that’s going on, but I know that as long as they draw breath, the people out there are gonna try and save you. So are you going to push through to the end and get yourself free, or let all their passion go to waste?”

  At those words, I found my words getting stuck in my throat. Those people were out there trying to save me, and here I was, complaining that it hurt a little to try and free myself. How pathetic is that?

  Clenching my fists tightly, I grit my teeth and made my decision.

  Pushing my mind as hard as I could, I tried to free myself from the chains that shackled me.

  As I did so, the pain I felt before returned worse than ever. Almost like my entire back was on fire.

  “AAAHHH!!”

  Screaming at the top of my lungs, I continued pushing and pushing before finally...

  “Ah-!”

  My restraints snapped off, and I fell off the T-shaped structure.

  With my back still seething in pain, I tried standing up.

  As I did so, however-

  “Get down!”

  -Savoncho tackled me just in time to avoid the giant arm from slamming down onto me.

  Barely managing to get her out of the way in time, I glared up at the giant claw.

  Fighting this thing was really starting to turn into a huge pain.

  Keeping my eye on it, I tried to make sure it’s attention was on me. However, a second strange presence popped up near me and I grabbed hold of Haiko just in time to avoid what appeared to be several octopus tentacles from grabbing hold of her.

  “What the-!?”

  Clearly just as surprised as I was, Haiko tried taking a few steps back, only for me to grab hold of her hand.

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t let go. As long as you’re with me, I’ll keep you safe.”

  As Savoncho said that, Haiko started feeling a strange flutteryness in her stomach.

  “Hm? What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Er…Nothing,” she responded. Looking away.

  For some reason, Haiko’s legs looked wobbly. She was probably still pretty shaken up about this whole situation.

  Turning towards where the tentacles shot out, it appeared it was the cross trying to bring back Haiko. If I were to guess, it was the thing in control of this whole thing.

  Frustrated at how hard it was to see, I turned to Haiko.

  “Haiko. Can you make it brighter in here?”

  “Um…I can try!”

  Focusing as hard as she could, the room began to light up at Haiko’s command, and I finally got to see what was attached to that claw.

  Standing there, trying to adjust itself to the light, was a giant red and green striped tiger that had rows of sharp teeth and four paws that had large sharp claws attached them them.

  Honestly, though, it made me think of Christmas the more I looked at it.

  “Huh. That beast actually looks kinda cute,” Haiko muttered next to me.

  I was about to agree when I sensed an attack and jumped out of the way right before the tentacles attacked us again.

  “Dammit. This isn’t gonna be easy,” I muttered.

  Letting go of Haiko’s hand, I had her stand behind me.

  “Um…I could help if you’d like,” Haiko offered.

  “That’d be appreciated. Which one do you wanna take?”

  Haiko glared at the cross.

  “I’ll take that thing.”

  “Good. Then I’ll take the tiger.”

  “The tiger? What's that mean?”

  “Er…Nothing.”

  Haiko stared at me with a confused look on her face before turning to the cross. I guess she didn't know what a tiger was.

  “Oh. Before anything else, how about I level the playing field?” said Haiko.

  “Hm?” I responded in confusion.

  Holding out her hand, Haiko seemed to be concentrating on something.

  As she did so, I took a look at the tiger. It seemed to be getting…smaller?

  I guess that’s one way to deal with it.

  “This should help. Thanks Hai-!”

  Turning to thank Haiko, I was surprised to find she was far below me.

  “Wait a minute. Don’t tell me…”

  Looking down at myself, I was able to confirm it. She didn’t shrink the tiger, she turned me into a giant.

  “Well, this isn't what I expected, but I guess I can roll with this,” I muttered and held out my hand.

  “Alright, Nia. Give me the best weapon you can make.”

  “You got it!”

  Using earth magic, a giant stone blade appeared in my hand. It was incredibly sharp as well as sturdy. Quite a good blade, considering it was made of rock.

  If you hadn’t guessed, this spell was similar to the one the MC used a while back when trying to confront me on that rooftop.

  Now, it wasn’t exactly the same since this was Nia's spell, which is different from the one the MC used, but it was similar.

  Looking at my blade, I pointed at the beast, which let out a loud roar in response.

  The tiger launched at me with its maw open wide.

  I ducked out of the way and tried to cut it in half, only for it to instantly turn around and drive its sharp claws through my sword. The blade fell apart in an instant.

  “Seriously!?”

  Jumping back in order to dodge another attack, I held out my hand and shot a fireball at the beast.

  As if to show off, it chomped down and started eating the flame before smirking creepily at me.

  “You’re gonna be quite a hassle, aren't you?” I found myself muttering before forming a new sword and charging at the beast.

  Leaving Savoncho to fight the beast, I glared at the strange monster in front of me.

  To my surprise, it let out a strange high pitched screech that caused me to cover my ears.

  Taking advantage of my shock, the monster tried shooting all its tentacles at once, and I barely managed to jump out of the way before the tentacles slammed into the ground in the spot I had stood moments before.

  Holding out my hand, I began chanting a spell.

  “Bring forth a spring of light. Holy Bla-!”

  Right before I could finish the attack, the beam of light I was trying to summon appeared before me and shot the monster, causing it to fly back several inches.

  “Huh?”

  How did I do that?

  Before I had time to think about it, the monster fired more of its tentacles at me.

  Preparing to dodge it, I began stepping to the side only to find the tentacles flanking me from all sides. At least, all except for one.

  Knowing it probably wouldn’t work, I jumped into the air, imagining I could fly.

  When I did so, however, I looked down to see all the tentacles smash into each other below me. To my surprise, I was flying.

  Confused, I flew there for a few seconds before an idea came to my mind.

  Turning my attention to the strange T-shaped monster, I held out my hand, and a ball of fire formed in front of my palm before I shot it at the monster.

  It brought up a tentacle to block the attack, but it confirmed my hypothesis. It appeared that my control over this world didn’t just allow me to manipulate the world and the beings within, but myself as well. That meant I could do all kinds of things I normally could only dream of.

  Grinning slightly, I flew at the T-shaped monster with attack spells at the ready.

  It responded with a screech as it shot its tentacles at me.

  “Those aren't gonna stop me!”

  Casting magic at a rapid rate, I shot wind slashes, fireballs, and water slashes at the tentacles.

  The tentacles all began plopping onto the ground one after the other as I continued my attacks. The spells created a beautiful yet deadly color pallet that looked absolutely incredible.

  And before I knew it, I was a few inches away from the monster.

  It didn’t have any facial expressions, but I sensed it was probably terrified as it looked at me.

  Not wanting to give it a chance to attack, I formed a ball of light in my hand.

  “Take this! Holy Laser!”

  A giant beam of energy shot from my hand into the monster.

  It let out one last screech of terror before disintegrating into nothing.

  Landing on the ground, I let out a victorious sigh.

  I could never pull off a spell like that in the real world, so I’m glad those restrictions were gone in this one.

  Turning around, I watched Savoncho to see how he was doing.

  Growling in frustration, I threw away another sword before glaring at the beast in front of me.

  “You’re really starting to get on my nerves!”

  Spawning another sword, I dodged the beast’s claws before jumping back in order to think of what to do next.

  “Dammit. Why is wielding a sword so much harder than using magic?” I muttered.

  Unlike normal adventurers, I always relied on magic and only ever used swords when it was absolutely necessary. And thus, I didn’t really use them that often.

  “...Wait a minute! That’s it!”

  Gripping my sword tightly, I charged at the tiger once more.

  It let out a ferocious roar and waited for my next attack.

  “Heh.”

  I couldn’t help but let out a laugh when I thought about how the beast wouldn’t see this coming.

  Bringing down my sword, it readied itself to slash through my weapon once more.

  This time, however...

  “Take this!”

  Suddenly, my sword burst into flames.

  Startled, the tiger tried taking a step back, only for me to dig my sword deep into its flesh. It hadn't expected me to cast magic on my weapon at all.

  Roaring in pain, the beast tried running, only for me to grab hold of it.

  “You’re not getting away!”

  Pushing the sword even deeper, the tiger let out one last pained roar before the life left its eyes, and I finished slicing its body in two.

  “I win!”

  I shouted in victory while shooting my arms up in the air.

  As I did so, I felt myself beginning to shrink and turned to find Haiko walking over to me while letting out a light giggle. It was actually kinda cute.

  “I’m glad to see you’re so happy,” she said.

  I grinned.

  “Of course I’m happy! It’s a blast showing people who’s boss!”

  “Hehe. What an interesting outlook.”

  After saying that, Haiko looked around with a confused expression.

  “So….how do we get out of here?”

  “Hm? Oh. Things will kinda put themselves back together in a few minutes. So just wait a bit longer, and then you’ll have your body back.”

  At least, that's how it worked before.

  “I see. I’m glad to hear that.”

  Looking out at the white void, Haiko smiled slightly.

  “Thank you for coming to save me. You and everyone else. I really appreciate it.”

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  “It’s nothing. Besides, you told me yourself, remember?”

  “Huh?”

  I grinned.

  “I’m meant to be the shield that protects you. So even if you weren’t in serious danger, I plan to protect you…at least until today is over.”

  As Axel Savoncho said those words, a strange warmth filled my heart. It was like I’d met someone I could let carry my pain and keep me safe. And as he smiled at me, my heart began to beat rapidly.

  After another moment, he vanished.

  Feeling a relaxing sensation flowing through my body, I closed my eyes and let myself get enveloped in the sensation before finally letting my consciousness slip away.