“Oi, Karlen! We’re nearly there, get ready!” Bayer patted his partner behind him as he controlled his plane.

Rousing from his sleep, Karlen opened his eyes wearily as he looked at his elegant black uniform. Looking around he finally remembered where he was, high in the sky gliding among the clouds.

“Yeah yeah, I’m up. I barely managed to get to sleep with all the noise Ol’ Lekz makes, you could’ve woken me up a bit later.” The 2 men laughed as Karlen reached under his seat and took out an orange-tinged map.

“Jusla is just up ahead right? This fucking war man, we’ve been fighting for 6 fucking years already, Nazeu!”

“Hey now, watch what you’re saying, I can take your swearing and what-not, but don’t you blaspheme in my presence.” Bayer turned around and faced Karlen with his wrinkly face.

“Come on old man, Gods are things of the past, war and victory are in the present!” Karlen gave a stiff smile as he looked out the window, only to see water.

“I ain’t that old yet, if I was, I’d be deployed to Veremen to fight those horrible demons…” His voice trailed as he sighed, “Well, I guess I’ll be sent there after this mission..”

“Ah? You’re reaching 50 already? Damn you are old! Hahaha, look at me, at the pinnacle of my youth!” Karlen revealed his white teeth as he gave a thumbs up.

“Yeah? Is that why you’re gunnin’? You think you have better eyes than me haha?” Karlen leaned back in his seat at these words.

“You honestly should’ve just become a sniper. I mean sure, you’d have to be on the ground and not in this beauty, but still, at least you could get some sleep.” They both sighed as they stared into the horizon.

Just as the plane exited some clouds, both Karlen and Bayer stared with wides eyes and open mouths.

“What the fuck! Avoid! Quickly avoid it!!” Karlen held onto Bayers shoulders tightly as he stared at the landmass floating in the sky.

“We can’t! Eject, fuck!” Bayers stared at the translucent dome that started forming as they approached it and decisively decided to eject.

Both men leaned back in their chairs and pulled a lever as the windows on top of them opened and the chairs launched through them.

“Ahhhhh, Bayer!” Karlen roared as he saw Bayer lean in his chair unresponsive, thankfully, his parachute deployed and he tried to calm himself, thinking of what to do.

Due to the momentum of the plane and the launch, Bayer unconsciously moved towards the city on the landmass.

Karlen tried shouting at Bayer to wake him, yet nothing helped, without any other options, Karlen controlled his parachute to drop to the city first, hoping that there wouldn’t be any enemies.

M.. Maybe it’s my Einzalt’s new project that worked! Right, yes. But I can’t rule out that it might be Jusla’s, ah fuck.. Give me strength Nazeu!

Looking below him, he saw a glimpse of his plane's carcass fall beneath the clouds. Slowly looking back up, yet keeping an eye on the clouds below, as if his plane would suddenly resurrect and fly back up, he inspected the city he was slowly falling to.

Tall buildings? No, only in a few areas? Huh? Some of them are damaged and burnt.. Big ass tower, why would anyone build something like that? Is it a radar? Now that’s what I call a castle! It’s magnificence is even more than that of Zalich Castle. But since there’s a castle it can’t be Jusla’s.. They and their shitty republican government would never allow that..

Karlen’s hopes grew as he thought of that. While Jusla was a republic, his own country, Einzalt was a monarchy. There would be no reason for Jusla to make a castle on a piece of land like this. But thinking of this, he grew scared.

Will they be angry that I damaged the new technology? No, maybe we were even sent here to fly into it to test it?

He sighed as he didn’t know what to think. He looked behind him to Bayer, who was still unconscious.

Come on old man, wake up! Wait.. No.. There’s people on the streets, they seem to be.. Cheering? Oh, that one just spotted me? Why is she ru-

His thoughts seemed to go to a full stop as he stared at the crowds.

D.. Demons! What in the world! Even animals? People live along side animals.. No, that’s not right! Those are people with animal features!? W.. What the hell did we hit!?

Karlen started panicking as he grew closer and closer to the ground. The crowd pulled back to form a circle that he landed on.

“H..Hey! I’m unarmed, please don’t hurt me or my companion!” Karlen began shouting as he landed on the ground and unbuckled himself from the parachute and raised his hands.

He looked around and saw the crowd murmuring to themselves in a language he couldn’t understand, still, he raised his hands as a universal sign of surrender, so they should still understand that.

Some small yet buff men with large beards and axes came to him and surrounded him threateningly.

“Uhm.. Uhh.. Help him please!?” In a panic Karlen pointed to Bayer who, although still in the air, was nearing the ground at a quick pace.

The crowd looked to where he pointed and let out some gasps. Soon a couple of tall men with wings wearing white stepped out of the crowd and flew towards Bayer.

Safely slowing the fall, they slowly unbuckled his parachute the way Karlen had and brought him to the ground.

“I, Medic. Doctor. I can help him, leave him to me ok?” Karlen shouted as he saw them place him onto the ground.

They glanced at him before raising an eyebrow and shaking their heads.

They raised their hands above his body and an amazing green formation appeared below their hands and phased through Bayers body multiple times.

“What…” Karlen shook as he felt his vision become blurry and he too fell to the ground.

…

“What has happened?” Raulas slowly descended into the crowd as they gave him space.

“Your Majesty! This man seems ta’ve fainted from shock or somethin’.” A leading dwarf bowed as he explained.

“I see… I got reports that there was a second one?” Raulas inspected Karlen and his parachute.

“My Lord, the man pointed towards this person and it seemed that he was in distress, we have healed him because we thought he might be severely injured. Forgive us for taking action without permission.” One of the angels explained as they all bowed.

“Don’t worry, it’s best not to make enemies so you’ve done well to heal him. Bring them back to the castle and give them a guest room.” Raulas spoke to one of the maids he brought along.

The maid stepped out from behind Raulas and nodded. Silently whispering, the bodies of Bayer and Karlen floated up and began moving towards the maid that started walking back to the castle.

“Now then.. Let’s see what crashed into us..” Closing his eyes and making a beckoning motion, the plane zoomed back up through the clouds and carefully landed in front of Raulas.

“Now.. Metal.. Interesting, no signs of magic.. You, get Gronda and Kikit.” He pointed to one of the dwarves who nodded and left the crowd.

“How interesting, now that I think about it, there was no magic on the men either.. Very interesting this world is.” Raulas laughed to himself.