Our Age

When great sheets of gasoline fell from the sky, Knight Cleveland sensed mortal danger.

Though he did not recognize gasoline, its pungent smell was a very bad sign.

It was not poison.

Then it had to be...

He forced his eyes open, willing his body to recover from the flashbang attack, and searched for Kang De. He saw that the Cathayan had already put some distance between them and was holding a small metal box with a flame rising from it.

He also saw the look in Kang De's eyes, so calm it was almost cold.

Without hesitation, Kang De threw the lighter.

In an instant, the knight understood what the liquid falling from the sky was for.

He let out a sudden roar and pulled a dagger from between the layers of his armor. The immediate threat of death pushed him beyond his usual limits, and he made a spectacular throw. The blade tore through the air, pierced straight through the falling lighter, and flew off into the distance.

"That's magic oil!"

The knight shouted, "Everyone! Retreat! Retreat! Get into the river! Run!"

The sailors scrambled back.

Kang De's gaze was cold, his killing intent boiling and unshaken. He grabbed his pistol, raised it, and fired at the ground.

Another shot rang out. The bullet struck a rock, throwing up sparks. Vaporized gasoline had mixed with the air, and the flammable gas exploded, flames surging.

But in the next instant, an iron boot came down from above and struck the center of the fire. It stomped and kicked, sending clods of earth flying. The air pressure drove away the oxygen, stopping the flames from spreading. "Damn Cathayan!"

Kang De's gaze was impassive as his left hand reached for another fire axe.

I'll kill you, you tin can, first.

Though the throwing axe had knocked his sword from his hand, though he had just thrown his dagger, and though his opponent had all manner of strange and terrifying ranged weapons, the unarmed knight still strode toward Kang De.

He knew that if the Cathayan had his hands free, every one of his companions present would be set ablaze, dying miserably in agony and terrible screams.

He had to buy his companions time to escape.

No use.

Kang De took a deep breath and roared.

"Kill them!"

You have companions. So do I.

A rumbling sounded in the distance as the gorilla came running alongside the kangaroo, a thick steel rebar club slung over its shoulder. The marmot and the wolverine stood on its shoulders, while birds cried out overhead and dangerous animals swooped down.

Kang De fired another shot at the knight.

The metal bullet struck the armor, igniting the gasoline vapor on its surface, but the fire did not take hold. A flash of white light seemed to pass over the armor, and the pistol bullet could not penetrate its defenses.

The shotgun.

With a booming blast, several large, pitch-black rubber projectiles shot through the air. The knight had no weapon in hand, so he raised his armored forearms side by side to shield his head and face, leaving no gap at all. The projectiles struck, their tremendous force sending pain through his arm bones, and their immense stopping power checked his charge.

But the knight continued charging without hesitation.

He could not penetrate the armor.

The armor seemed fireproof.

At this close range, a Molotov cocktail could easily backfire on him.

It did not matter.

Kang De let go of the shotgun, drew the fire axe with his left hand, and gripped the stun baton in his right.

He charged straight at him.

I'm going to smash your fucking head in today!

Both sides had long since seen red, and the two furious men had completely lost their composure.

No one had taught Kang De how to fight, so he had never undergone systematic combat training. His close-combat skills came entirely from figuring things out himself and fucking around with practice. This was especially true of his axe technique: he cared only about power and speed, ignoring all the fancy stuff. He had just one move-chop the fucker's head faster and harder!

The fire axe came crashing down toward the knight's head.

The knight suddenly planted his foot, adjusted his stance, and turned to the right, reaching with his left hand for Kang De's axe-wielding wrist. He meant to break the Cathayan's right hand, but the moment they made contact, a mountain's weight crashed down on him.

This Easterner is incredibly strong!

Cleveland reacted swiftly. He immediately brought up his right hand, bent his knees with the motion, and planted his feet, trying to absorb the force. But Kang De's other hand had already struck without a sound, jabbing the stun baton against the knight's heart.

Full power.

The stun baton gave a soft crackle.

The knight did not budge.

It didn't work?

Cleveland's gaze was cold. When Kang De had used the stun baton earlier, he had already worked out how the thing inflicted damage. Ignorant Cathayan, every suit of knight's armor on the continent has an insulating inner coating. Otherwise, heavy cavalry formations would have been swept into the dustbin of history by air mages long ago!

You fell for it!

Kang De reacted swiftly, immediately thrusting the stun baton toward the knight's exposed head and face. But Cleveland let out a furious roar and suddenly exerted all his strength, gripping one of Kang De's arms and using every ounce of power he had to throw him over his shoulder.

Once I throw him to the ground and pin him down, I'll win!

So Kang De dropped into a horse stance.

The knight could not throw him.

The horse stance was the one basic exercise Kang De, who knew nothing about Chinese martial arts, knew was "definitely useful to practice."

He dropped the stun baton without hesitation, grabbed his pistol again, and aimed it at Cleveland's head.

He fired.

Bang.

The knight jerked his head aside.

But dodging took some of his attention, weakening his grip. The deadlock broke, and Kang De swept out with his leg, pressed down with his right hand, and roared in fury.

"Get down!"

With a crash, the knight was driven to the ground, armor and all. Kang De planted a knee against his breastplate, raised the gun, and fired. Bang. Another shot. The knight turned his head aside, and a small, smoking hole appeared in the ground.

Both men's faces were contorted as they struggled with all their might. Kang De had dropped the fire axe and pinned one of the knight's hands down, while Cleveland desperately restrained his gun-wielding left hand with his other hand. Their struggle centered on the gun. Kang De's eyes were fierce as the muzzle moved toward Cleveland's head, millimeter by millimeter.

They were already locked in a fight to the death.

In the blink of an eye, things had descended into this chaos.

No one had expected this.

"Stop! Stop it!"

The anxious voice was drawing closer.

It was Tina.

When Her Highness heard the gunshot, she sensed that something was wrong. By the time she reached the top of the slope and saw what was happening below, the gasoline had already poured down, the sailors were fleeing in all directions, and Mr. Kang De and the knight captain had begun their fight. She shouted, but she was too far away, and the wind scattered her voice. She wanted to run down, but the slope was too steep, and she was not a good runner.

So she gritted her teeth, sat down on the ground, and rolled all the way down.

But the fight between the men was simply too fierce and too fast.

The two men, both in an extremely unstable state of mind, fought without mercy.

It seemed things had been decided from the very beginning... The people of the other world had abandoned the possibility of peaceful negotiations.

Her Highness stumbled as she ran toward them.

The sailors who had taken refuge in the river to wash off the "magic oil" blew a horn to summon their companions nearby. They wanted to go out and help the knight captain, and the magical animals had already reached the battlefield.

Then they saw the princess. She looked perfectly unharmed and was anxiously telling them to stop.

"Your Highness!"

They called out.

"The knight captain..."

The princess paid them no heed. She ran with all her might, shouting, "Stop! All of you, stop!"

But Kang De could not understand her language.

Or rather, he no longer wanted to understand.

The people of the other world had chosen the gun.

And his life was more important than all of theirs put together.

Because he had to get home alive, he could not take the slightest risk. They had ignored the wine and chosen the gun.

Cleveland heard Her Highness calling out and was at once startled and overjoyed.

Then he shouted, "Your Highness! Please leave! It's dangerous here! Go, quickly! This Cathayan has gone mad!"

The princess shouted, "Don't hurt him!"

The girl called out again, "Mr. Kang De! Kang De! Kang De!"

Kang De did not look back. He was still trying to aim the muzzle at the head of this foreign devil from another world, and he roared, "Get away! Don't come near me!"

The princess had come too late.

Once a conflict had begun, it was hard to stop.

A year of solitude had left Kang De with serious problems in his mental state. Normally, he could do his utmost to regulate and calm himself, but after facing mortal danger, after facing this unreasonable threat of death, after nearly dying in a foreign land and never making it home again, he snapped.

Fuck the woman, fuck the other world. Right now, all he wanted was to slaughter every bastard who dared hurt him, leaving none of them alive.

The princess paid him no heed, or perhaps she could not understand him either. She simply ran faster toward Kang De, shouting as she ran, "Please stop! Kang De! Kang De!"

Tina was rapidly approaching from behind.

Kang De had already placed every native of this other world among his enemies.

They were all together.

If she comes at me, will she stab me in the back?

A fierce look flashed in his eyes. He drew the nail gun with his left hand and turned to shoot at the princess without hesitation.

"Bastard!" Cleveland's handsome face twisted in an instant at the sight. He had already experienced the power of firearms and knew these strange weapons had capabilities and power far beyond those of crossbows.

"Unforgivable!"

He did not know where he found the strength, but he threw his entire body forward with all his might.

Kang De's left hand jerked upward, sending the sharp steel nail into the sky. Enraged, he raised his right hand and smashed the grip of the Type 92 pistol against the knight's head.

With a thud, Cleveland was knocked to the ground, blood streaming from his head. It was a perfect opportunity, and Kang De aimed at his opponent's eyes without hesitation.

Just then, a warm light shone behind him.

The light appeared suddenly. Multicolored starlight bloomed, and intricate patterns of light intertwined in midair, radiating boundless light and heat. Kang De turned back instinctively.

Tina stood in the starlight.

Her whole body was enveloped in a strange light, and an intricate magic circle bloomed like a flower behind her.

The Goth sailors, who had been ready to fight to the death with their knives, froze in place, ignoring even the threat of the terrifying animals. With a clatter, a short blade fell from someone's hand.

Their eyes widened, and their mouths even fell open in utter shock.

Even the animals were stunned.

The wolverine, the chicken, the swan, the kangaroo, the pigeon, the parrot...

These magical animals looked at the magic circle that had appeared behind Tina and forgot about the fight as well. They were only a group of animals, but at this moment, as they watched the scene, utter shock flashed in their eyes.

And sadness.

And remembrance.

The entire battlefield seemed to have fallen still.

Kang De was no exception, nor was Knight Cleveland.

Dazed, the knight saw the brilliant starlight.

He murmured, "No... no..."

In the silence, only Tina-Taidariel moved, walking slowly forward with starlight at every step.

She was a mess, her clothes covered in dirt and a few blades of grass caught in her hair. But now she looked like a sacred goddess. She came to Kang De's side, reached out, and slowly embraced him. With her eyes closed, she murmured an obscure incantation in his ear.

Kang De froze.

Without realizing it, he grew calm.

Tina's whispers echoed in his ears. He seemed unable to understand them, yet also seemed to understand. He felt things gradually being added to his mind, and he felt his body gradually changing. Some of those changes he could describe, while others he could not.

But the most obvious change was that, slowly, slowly, he began to understand what Tina was saying.

At first it was a few words, then a simple sentence, and finally a complex, difficult incantation.

She was saying:

"To all humans, as small as dust, may this endless starry sky forever be our age."

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PS1: This book gets two updates a day, and they're usually quite long-three or four thousand characters at the drop of a hat. That's the equivalent of three, four, or five updates from someone else. Don't be monkeys; learn to do the math! (Slams table)

PS2: By the way, police stun batons are extremely powerful. Sustained contact with a vital area can absolutely kill someone.

PS3: The protagonist's otherworldly cheat is about to come online-anyone want to guess what it is?