We set out immediately after breakfast.

All of us.

My monsters became increasingly determined to keep watch over me at all times, and I felt that arguing over it would be ultimately a futile effort I didn’t want to engage in.

I barely became comfortable thinking of them as my monsters, pushing the need for other classification somewhere to the back of my mind, and focusing on a more practical outlook on things, rather than the constant contradictions about this line of thinking.

There was a certain level of safety in numbers, I told to myself.

Besides, nothing in camp was worth guarding,

From what I understood, the pantry wouldn’t last long even if I didn’t check it personally, and the shattered pieces of artwork and coins were nothing more than dead weight when one couldn’t trade with natives, or give up in exchange for relative peace.

Putting some distance between us and potential enemies was probably a good idea too, especially when I wanted to avoid the fight as long as I was able to.

The hope of finding answers by combing through the original site was most tempting. It could be a solution, even, a way back home, as abrupt as the phenomenon that brought me here.

The cobbled road winding uphill, the very same one we descended when we arrived here, seemed old and cracked, though I doubted it was as unused as it appeared to be. I didn’t quite realise it when I arrived here for the first time, but it was obvious in hindsight that roads like this were rare in ancient times. Requires a lot of resources, time and manpower to build, the actual stone roads were very rare, suggesting this may not necessarily be the remote area I took it for, but a major trade route or such.

This meant we were bound to encounter travellers, sooner or later. If they didn’t reach the camp proper, and the shrine within, they would at very least notice traces of excessive burning where pyromaniacal vulpines got rid of the bodies or scorched vegetation in wake of liberal fireball use.

And with wanderers came possible hostilities.

It felt strange, being surrounded by the restless mob of monsters that loitered around, very excitable, and always full of energy, always looking for enemies to fight and prey to hunt. Occasionally, a few ran away, causing a ruckus in the forest, catching small critters as a snack to share.

Tama, Miwah and Narita, or ‘Alphas’ as the nebulous system referred to them, were always close. Their chosen smaller kins that had been equipped with salvaged pieces of armour were marching as some form of protective detail.

After getting higher on the hill, I stopped briefly to look back. I was getting the same view of the valley that had welcomed me the first time: farmland with scattered hamlets in the distance that started where the forest ended, and a view of the places farther away was hidden in the vaporous haze.

From the place where we stood, the land seem settled, and I couldn’t pinpoint where the danger could come from. Though, it ultimately meant very little, as some angles were obstructed by the forest, while others were obstructed by fog.

I beckoned the already impatient group to continue.

The trek up to the mountains, or at least close to the spot where I originally woke up, didn’t take very long, a mere few hours, which were still a little exhausting. I panted, though the monsters themselves were just restless.

The remnants of the bandits killed in the original encounter were still there, leaving an unpleasant stench after being left for a day in the forest, and somewhere to the right, behind the trees, the stone ruins could be found.

Cadavers did remind me that search would be a very unpleasant endeavour, possibly bringing plague, and with it, death. I shuddered. Perhaps I wasn’t careful enough, I thought. But most of those sicknesses were caused by bacteria...

“Narita.” I said, turning to one of my companions, “If your power drains life, I need to get rid of anything around those bodies down to bacteria, to disinfect it so to speak.”

I wasn’t sure it would work, or if anthropomorphic rats even understood what bacteria was.

“Do you know what is asked of you?” I tried to verify.

“Yes-yes, Master. Microorganisms are alive. Valid target,” she answered immediately.

It made me pause. It was, I assume, quite modern knowledge to have, and I couldn’t explain why they could know what they did. But their very existence wasn’t entirely natural either, the product of mysterious forces behind the game-like windows.

“If you would?” Noticing my own brief moment of silence I beckoned her forward.

“Yes-yes, Master,” Narita answered. She gestured with her polearm, as the grim reaper passed judgement. The rat woman and her smaller kin began their work.

With the sickly emerald, the glow began to wither away, blacken and die at an accelerated pace. It was almost like watching a movie on fast forward. A lifecycle caught accelerated to an impossible pace, extinguishing the life in a few eyeblinks until only dried lifeless husks remained of the plants. There was, suddenly, almost no smell, almost like chemical processes stopped in the instant in defiance of natural laws.

It was like in the small circle around them all life ceased to be.

Monsters of all three kinds in the immediate vicinity became even more lively, giggling happily, almost like they were infused with a jolt of vitality. It affected me just the same.

“Excellent. Thank you,” I said before I realized I shouldn’t encourage them to do this.

But there was probably no other way, I didn’t have any disinfectant, and it suddenly seemed like a good idea to have more beings with quite useful abilities around.

“You are now Mia. Lia. And Bea.” I pointed to three rat-like creatures, the smaller versions of Narita with equivalent abilities who helped with this by concentrating their powers on one spot.

Before I can question my own ability to make up reasonable-sounding names, my words triggered an immediate reaction.

Unit named! Mia, The Named Defiler

Skill “Great Devourer lvl.3” gained.

Unit named! Lia, The Named Defiler

Skill “Great Devourer lvl.4” gained.

Unit named! Bea, The Named Defiler

Skill “Great Devourer lvl.5” gained.

Nine new monsters materialized from the ruby haze erupting from the ground, while the small furry horde chanted, “Master! Master!” approvingly. I waved the screen invading my view away.

“Tama, could you lead us to the place where I woke up?” I asked.

“Yes, Master.”

Soon, after a very short trek through the forest, I found myself at the place where this all started - the old ruins almost entirely consumed by the forest, standing silently at the edge of the cliff.

The paved clearing, the stone slab with intricately carved patterns, didn’t feel any less strange now than they were when I had awoken here. Surrounded by the hostile natives, I didn’t have the chance to explain myself, which dragged me into the seemingly endless spiral of violence I still struggled to escape.

Bodies and all traces of the battle that transpired were still there, still gross, with the additional smell of slowly starting decay.

Now I stood here once again. However, what used to be a small crew of creatures yesterday was now a large mob, several times more than this accursed event originally spawned, and proportionally more destructive.

I was disgusted. Strangely enough, not by my current company, but rather with the world, with the unexplained events that brought me there for reasons I couldn’t comprehend, into the situation I never wished for.

It was returning to the crime scene, though I felt more like the victim, than the perpetrator.

Something within me boiled, and my anger grew - it was a strange swing of emotion, tried to keep it bottled up.

As I turned to the restless menagerie, they returned my gaze with gleaming eyes, looking up to be expectant, awaiting orders. Or perhaps speech, or something else entirely, I couldn’t be certain. Either way, I wasn’t ready for this, but still, I tried.

“Master!” They screeched in their girlish voices.

“I want …” I said, pausing briefly to search for the correct term, “...I want you to comb through the area, find the items left behind that can be useful. Defilers are to sterilize everything first, then Purifiers torch the bodies, then bring the items here for inspection.”

“For Master!” They responded all in unison, and with some quiet enthusiasm of their own, they rushed to complete their task. At least, the two mentioned variants did - for the most part as there were more fiery vulpines than would be required for the job, and anthropomorphic rodents with their lifeforce draining power wouldn’t be too numerous to cause irreversible damage.

Self-appointed guards, ones that got the available gear to set them apart, remained.

Also, all shadowy canines stayed.

“Eviscerators would take the watch,” I declared, “Make sure there is no one else than us around. If you spot someone, let me know, but don’t attack them first.”

“For Master!” They cried out with a growling undertone they usually spoke with, though with no less enthusiasm than the others. The mini-werewolves scattered into the woods, disappearing under their own invisibility power as well as shadows under the green canopy of the surrounding forest.

“Could you clear those off first?” I waved towards the most offending remains still left on the paved circle from the previous fight, even if charred beyond recognition.

“Of course, Master,” Narita and Tama replied in unison.

Though I had already seen their destructive capabilities before, I was still somewhat shocked when they put their powers to work, especially the fiery vixen that turned the remnants in the blazing conflagration. Perhaps their abilities were boosted, possibly thanks to Narita’s draining magic.

I looked to the distance, in the direction of where a sharp drop abruptly interrupted the ruins with its paved clearing. Though the murk under the cliff was still hidden a lot from the view, there was certainly land down there, stretching to the horizon. Likely settled, with the geometric patterns of fields showing through the wandering milky gaze.

Miwah was there, next to me, also looking into the expanse beyond the cliff. Done with their task, one I couldn’t bare to check the completion of, Tama and Narita joined her. A handful of the well-equipped, mini-versions of them, stood nearby almost as honour guards, enjoying the gesture though with the smile on their lips.

The enormous distances in question made me wish we could fly - if the solution wasn’t there, we would have to search far and wide, scouting far ahead than we would manage on foot.

“Master?” The werewolf spoke, sounding concerned.

“Why do you even call me Master?” I asked,

“Because that’s who you are,” Tama answered calmly as if it was the most obvious thing ever. It made me fire a few more questions, a very weird one in hindsight.

“Do you know my name?”

“Yes, Master.”

“What am I?”

“The Master.”

“I don’t want to have slaves,” I said, resolutely.

“Yes, Master. It is for the best. We can’t let humans near you, they harmed you once already!” Tama retorted, quite resolutely, and wrapped her arm around me affectionately. Miwah, not to be outdone, at least held my hand when the scale armour I made her wear prevented her from being too close.

Only Narita was satisfied with posing as a sort of bodyguard.

“But I am human!” I tried to object.

They all laughed.

“Don’t be silly, Master.” The fiery vixen almost scolded me, though with quite a pleasant tone.

This once again turned into a very awkward situation, or a worrying one. Monsters so far showed only contempt for humans, if not outright hatred, though they didn’t consider me to be one.

After this brief exchange, I was left with a somewhat eerie sensation, recalling the events that transpired in this very place, or those nameless ruins in the middle of nowhere, in the foreign world that almost certainly wasn’t the Earth as I knew it.

I didn’t feel that anything changed, didn’t think myself off as being something different, though it were humans who turned immediately hostile while it was my monsters who defended me. And though it didn’t seem I was altered in any way, they acted like I was one of them all along.

Only after a moment, did I space out, I realised I looped my hand around Tama’s waist. She didn’t look like I was doing anything I wasn’t supposed to, which enforced how bizarre this situation was since. .

I didn’t have a chance to make up my mind on this identity crisis though.

“For Master!” The screeching yet excited voice of the ‘Purifier’ announced that they were back from their search, presenting me with at least a handful of items.

I left my ‘Alphas’ companion and instead of worrying about their relationship with me, I went to inspect the loot. Still with the sliver of hope in some magical solution that would end this insanity, in a way as miraculous as one that brought me there.

They were few weapons, short swords mostly. A few bows only slightly blackened, though not entirely ruined, short polearms - blades on the stick I couldn’t quite name though I’ve seen somewhere.

Then they came with armour pieces, leg wear, hauberks, and helmets too.

Energetic, almost giddy monsters, threw everything on the one pile, with their usual chants combined with unrestricted excitement, while I still combed through the unassorted pile of trash mixed with possibly valuable stuff, in a slightly desperate attempt to make a sense of it.

Some items were significantly damaged with scorch marks indicating their encounter with ‘Purifiers’, some ruined to the point it was evident it was the work of fiery fox pyrokinetic ability, some parts reduced to scorched pieces that crumbled apart. Others didn’t though, though there was some damage and dried blood.

However, no sufficiently mystical solution came to form.

I did notice they did come in two different styles, recognizable even to someone who wasn’t a historian, though the meaning eluded me, as it may simply mean rank…

“Master!” The voice of the ‘Evicerator’, with its typical slightly growling undertone, forced me back into focus. I looked around, startled as I once again spaced out.

Miwah, however, immediately translated it into normal speech.

“Humans. Approaching from the direction of the hills.”