If Jack had a break in-case of emergency ability that could get him out of anything, now would be the time to use it. Between the massive tree turned beautiful woman and the wolf-like beast turned strongman, he had no chance. Even if he wasn't gift wrapped in a tangle of roots.

Just the weight of their aura was enough to hold him in place. He was completely at their mercy.

Not only could both of them squish him with one pinky finger, but he was literally standing inside of their expansive auras. With a thought, they could manifest their qi and annihilate him.

Her calm, velvety voice had sounded clearly in his head. "Hello little one. We would like for you to answer some questions if you would be so kind."

Jack had never thought of himself as a particularly rude person, but if there was ever a time to turn on the ole southern charm, this was it.

"Oh great, because I was just thinking the whole way being dragged over here how I hope my abductors have a bunch of questions for me."

He just couldn't do it. He wouldn't beg or grovel before his soon to be executioners. Whatever they were going to do to him, he probably deserved worse. Jack only regretted that he wasn't able to help Arthur first.

Both of his captors seemed surprised for a moment. Then the woman walked over to Jack and lifted her right hand toward him as if she was going to grab his neck and choke him. Jack hoped that he looked defiant in his final moments.

When her hand was almost to his neck, her fingertips brushed the roots that were constraining him and Jack immediately felt his bonds release. She manipulated the wood that had been wrapped around his body.

The roots straightened themselves out and she twisted and molded them into a tall staff. It was roughly seven feet long with thin roots that swirled around each other until opening up at the top to look a bit like a splayed open hand with sharp fingers. Intricate scripts carved themselves in twisting patterns around the wooden stick, giving it a look of mystery and power.

She took a step back with the staff in her hand and Jack looked at his unbound body, surprised to be alive.

Although they seemed to have been stunned by his first comment, neither of them were fuming with the anger that he had expected. In fact, the man's facial expression couldn't be more cold and the tree woman projected a sense of infinite tranquility.

Maybe Jack's opinion of the powerful had been tainted by his interactions with Zachias. These beings seemed to be unshakeable.

That is not to say that they would not still kill him, but Jack got the sense that if they did, it would be without the slightest hint of passion.

The serene woman tilted her head to the side and he heard her breathy voice in his head once again.

"We would like to know how you came to our forest. Humans know better than to venture here. Yet you were in the middle of our territory before we ever realized you were there."

Jack thought about lying to them or refusing to talk, but there really was no point. He knew that they would be able to get the information out of him one way or another. Besides, despite the forceful way in which they had brought him here, Jack had no ill will towards these beings.

He could have communicated telepathically like them, though Jack thought it would be best to keep them out of his head as much as possible. He did not want them to discover the foul-tempered alien that lived there. Though he did wonder how exactly they understood his English words.

Jack decided that his best chance of surviving was to tell the truth. With how advanced these creatures were, they would immediately know if he was lying to them and they would probably not take kindly to that.

"I came here through a spatial door on the top of a mountain" Jack began honestly. "The gods that rule over this planet... they took someone from me. I came here to take him back."

The man with the dark grey beard uncrossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Jack. The voice that Jack heard in his mind this time was rough and deep.

"Do not lie to us boy” he growled. “We were here when your kind first came to this world. Their sect abandoned that door as soon as they could escape the great forest. No one has used it since."

As the man spoke, the air chilled rapidly in his vicinity. Frost began to collect on the grass directly around him and expand outward. The water vapor in the air even began to freeze. Suddenly, Jack could see his own breath. He took a step back as the frost on the ground almost reached him.

The brown skinned woman looked at him curiously. She glanced down at the jeans he was wearing and the shoes on his feet. She seemed to be considering the possible veracity of Jack's claims.

"Could it be?" She walked around him studying Jack intently, taking in every detail. He allowed her to look closely at him. Not that he could stop her if he wanted to.

"I imagine that they don't make jeans over here do they?" Jack suggested.

She looked to the large man questioningly. He nodded and took a step towards Jack and leaned forward. The dangerous looking man sniffed the air one single time and then returned to standing impassively with his arms crossed.

"He has never been to this world before” the man confirmed. “But that does not mean that he is not related to the Olympic sect. They may be trying to embed a spy among us. We should kill him and be done with it."

The beautiful woman nodded sagely. Jack didn't know why the man had projected that to his mind, but he decided that it would be best to answer the accusation.

"Hey, you are the ones who kidnapped me. If you let me be on my way, you will never see or hear from me again. I just want to find my friend."

"It is too late for that" the man responded. He lifted one arm out in front of him with his fingers curled up like he was holding a ball. Jack felt ice qi begin to manifest in the air around him. It gave him the impression of an extraordinarily deadly cold.

Whatever the man was about to do, Jack took comfort in the fact that it would be over before he felt a thing. As the fingers on the man's outstretched hand started to ball into a fist, they heard the placid woman's voice again and he hesitated.

"Wait" she stated calmly. "I sense the hand of fate moving in this."

"Then we should do the cautious thing and eliminate him" the muscular man projected coldly, not bothering to hide his point of view from Jack.

"No. We must be sure."

Suddenly, she was standing directly in front of Jack. He hadn't even seen her move. She just appeared in front of him so quickly that Jack thought she may have distorted space or even time somehow. Without hesitation, she lifted her left hand and placed her pointer and middle finger in the center of Jack's forehead.

He had no chance to dodge or counter attack. Her movements were not jerky or forced. On the contrary, they were extremely fluid and graceful. She simply moved so quickly that Jack's mind couldn't process until it had already happened.

As soon as her fingers were touching his head, Jack's senses were consumed and he seemed to fall backwards into his own mind.

The next thing Jack knew, he was sitting on the couch in Matt's living room. They were watching television with Arthur. Jack looked confused as he asked his friends a question.

"What's up with all these nosebleeds in anime? Do you think some guys really start bleeding from their faces every time they get horny? Because I got to think that would be terribly inconvenient."

Matt and Arthur both burst out laughing and Jack smiled.

He remembered this. It had happened years ago. Why was he dreaming about it now? The scene faded from his mind and was instantly replaced with another.

Jack was on a video call with his manager and a representative from HR. They were in the process of laying him off. This was certainly a less fond memory.

"Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we are forced to let you go" his manager flatly told him. Of course this would happen when he was trying to work his way up from the entry level.

That is just my luck he thought. This would set him back at least a couple years.

Memory after memory flashed by and Jack watched them helplessly, unable to process that this was more than a simple dream.

It was an invasion.

He experienced the last few years of his life in a moment. Unemployment. Getting the pandemic unemployment benefits. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Running out of money. Being forced to work as a wage slave as he tried to put his life back together.

Jack watched himself decide to get in shape. Next, he was struggling to jog down a nature trail on a humid day. He looked up to the sky and something caught his eye. It looked like a small flame descending on...

An ancient presence with a horrible anger welled up from inside Jack. This was not the first time that he had felt that same fury. It was a raging inferno that would blaze through and scorch the whole world if given the chance.

This time, however, Jack noticed that there was something beneath Zachias' overwhelming anger.

Pain. Loneliness.

The rage smashed through the daze that Jack had been subjected to. He remembered where he was and sensed the tree woman's presence in his mind.

Jack felt her surprise as the endless wrath forcibly expelled her. His senses returned to him just in time to see her jerk the hand that was touching his forehead away. She gasped and looked horrified for a moment before quickly regaining her calm veneer, but Jack could tell that she had been truly shaken by the experience.

He could understand. The first time he had been subjected to Zachias' fury, Jack had ended up laying on the floor waiting for death. Only now did he realize that seemingly infinite anger was a veil covering an even deeper anguish.

She turned to the bearded man with a meaningful look and some conversation seemed to pass between them that Jack was not privy to. The man's glowing blue eyes widened briefly and he glanced at the human in shock.

Now that Zachias had been discovered, Jack was even more sure that these supremely powerful beings would kill him. They finished their silent conversation and turned back to Jack. He readied himself for a fight. Even if it was pointless, he would go down swinging.

The woman reached for Jack with her left arm and he projected his aura and tried to manifest his qi. Unfortunately, instead of the expected swarm of bright blue lightning, there was barely a spark.

She had somehow smothered his aura as soon as it had expanded. He felt it collapse back inside his body as she snuffed it out like a candle.

Jack was levitated off the ground and pulled over to them struggling all the way. He snarled and jerked and tried to manifest his qi, but there was nothing he could do in the face of such overwhelming power.

If there was one thing that Jack had learned, it was that power was everything in this universe. He was tired of being at the mercy of the mighty. Jack silently vowed to get stronger if he survived this.

His arms were pulled out in front of him like he was about to be drawn and quartered. The woman reached out with her right hand which carried the wooden staff and brought it down to touch his left side on his ribcage.

Where the splayed fingers of the staff touched his uncovered side, Jack felt a sharp burning pain. It was like the staff was piercing and digging around beneath his skin. The pain was so acute that he nearly shouted, but he managed to turn it into a defiant growl.

He tried to look down to see what she was doing to his side. However, his head was held firmly in place so he could only look straight ahead as the man stepped forward and reached toward Jack's face with his left hand.

Assuming he was about to join in on the torture, Jack redoubled his fight for freedom. The dark grey bearded man reached past Jack's face and grabbed the back of his neck. Immediately, the same pain that he felt on his left ribcage began to burn into the back of his neck just below his skull.

For what seemed like forever, but was actually probably just a few seconds, Jack knew nothing but searing pain. Then, as abruptly as it had began, the pain abated. The man and woman both stepped back and Jack was released to fall to his hands and knees.

Surprised to still be in one piece, Jack jumped to his feet and prepared to run or fight. He looked down at himself to make sure that he was okay, and when he saw his left side, he did a double take.

From the top of his ribcage, down to a few inches above his hip, there was a bright green fractal tattoo marking his skin. It looked vaguely like the branching veins of a leaf. Jack brushed his hand down the ink trying to wipe it off, but it didn't even sting to touch it. If any damage had been done to his skin from the tattoo, his physique had already healed it.

Jack reached back to touch the base of his neck, assuming that he had a similar mark there that he was unable to see.

Strangely, the beings that had inked him seemed content to stand back and watch Jack's confusion. He looked at them with suspicion when he was done checking his body for damage.

The gorgeous woman's mouth lifted into a casual smile, though Jack still felt like he could still see some of the fear that she had displayed when she discovered Zachias’ presence in his mind.

She telepathically spoke to him once again. "You have received the blessings of the druids and the beastkin Jack. How do you feel?"

She must have learned his name while she was scouring his memories. Jack was stumped by this turn of events. He had been sure that he was about to die there. He looked down again at the green pattern on his left side.

"I feel like my dad is going to kill me." Jack looked back up at them his heart still pounding with adrenaline. "Who are you?"

"That knowledge would not benefit you now” she replied gently. “We hope that the gifts we have bestowed upon you will serve you well in your quest to find your friend."

Jack stared at the woman dumbfounded. Why would they decide to help him now?

"You know what would really serve me well, is a map. Do you know where the city of Nyx is?" If they were giving gifts, he would take them albeit with a grain of salt.

She nodded slowly and gestured behind him with her free left hand, her other still holding the scripted staff. "You will be shown the way to the nearest village."

He followed her gesture and turned his head to look back over his shoulder. Two of the tree people that had brought him here were already walking back across the field towards them.

"We wish you luck" her mental voice came to his mind as if from far away.

When Jack turned back around, the powerful beings that had been right in front of him only a moment ago, were nowhere to be found.