:::[Third person POV]:::

[They are moving.]

As soon as a suspicious person appeared near the little house, Cristal immediately informed Adam Liu.

Liu paid attention to Liu's report and asked for confirmation. "There's only one person, right?"

[Yes, and master suggested that we shouldn't show any hostility and talk things out if possible.]

As Cristal said, Adam instructed her to tell Liu that it was unnecessary to antagonize this person because they might be the only clue to finding out what happened while Adam and the others were on the other side of the portal.

"Yeah, I know, but it's better to be careful and be prepared. It's weird for a human to show up now, not to mention that they are alone unless they are extremely strong and managed to survive alone all of this time. And if not, then they could be also related to the people who abducted me and Verte." Liu whispered as she stood up in front of the door, preparing herself to fight.

After what happened to her and Verte, Liu was on her guard against people who showed up out of nowhere. She was surprised by Cristal's ability and Adam's suggestion also made sense, but she couldn't let herself caught off guard again.

When the commander and the other armored men appeared, Liu was helpless, powerless, and couldn't do anything. 'I couldn't even manage to protect Verte.. I failed.. But I won't let that happen again,' she thought, looking back at what happened and glanced at Zax who was still unconscious. 'I couldn't even land a hit on him.. How did Adam manage to beat such a monster?' She wondered as she tried to come up with better strategies.

Liu didn't know about Rudeus's abilities so she couldn't come up with anything to protect herself against it, and even if she did, she was weak and didn't have authority, thus she never stood a chance against him.

But now..

[I will go meet them. As long as they can understand human language, I should be able to exchange some words with them.]

Cristal's suggestion was not bad and Liu understood that it was dangerous to show herself or her power without knowing her enemy.

'I am not even sure if monsters can't disguise into humans..' Liu thought to herself, thinking back about Rudeus who was not a normal human just by looking at his appearance.

"Okay. Give me a signal if they turn out to be dangerous."

Cristal observed Liu as she said these words, looking like she was assessing her abilities, then she went out of the house from a little window.

[Can you see them, or should I say her, master?]

[Yes, what kind of power is that?]

The image that Cristal's lenses recorded could be transmitted to Adam's helmet if needed, and this time, it seemed like Cristal and Adam concluded that the person who approached the little house was a female. Without Cristal's ability, Liu and Zax wouldn't be able to hear anything until this woman got too close because she was floating in the air and two crimson red wings appeared on her back, but with Cristal's X-ray vision and the other type of scanners that she was equipped with, the woman couldn't hide. She wore a black coat made of animal skin which covered her head and her full body and held a crimson red sword in her hand.

As soon the woman saw Cristal, she instantly took a fighting stance and multiple crimson red swords appeared around her.

[I am not here to fight. Can you understand my words?]

The woman looked a little bit surprised by Cristal's words but it didn't seem like it was enough to change her mind.

"What is this?" She mumbled. Various thoughts appeared inside of her mind as she looked at Cristal's figure: A cube-like object who floated in the air and talked. 'But how?' she thought.

The woman traveled through different worlds and saw a lot of unusual forms of advanced technology, but that was not the reason why she asked this question to herself. Instead, 'how did this kind of thing appear here? Did someone come here to find some survivors? But why now?' these were the questions that she pondered about.

[The people inside don't have any ill intent, and they just want to talk. Is that possible?]

"What kind of trick is this?" The woman said, with a facial expression showing that she didn't believe what Cristal said and thought it was some kind of trick.

Moreover, the fact that Cristal had managed to discover her, even though she erased her presence, made her more suspicious of Cristal's intentions. Then Cristal mentioned that some people were waiting for her inside the little house that she built and where she hide her last bit of survival rations, which made her more restless. 'What do they want? Are they trying to pressure me to share my food with them? But how did they discover that I was here?'

After a certain incident which was followed by the invasion of the gigantic monster, this woman was stuck on this planet without a way to leave and began to survive by herself. 'They seem to be confident, is it because they have this kind of technology? Still, I wouldn't fall for such a trick..' She made up her mind.

The wings on the woman's back moved and created a red tornado.

Swoosh!

[Please calm down, there's an unconscious person inside.]

"Do you think that I would fall for such a trick, show yourselves?" The woman shouted.

But after she said that, the temperature in the surrounding dropped drastically, to the point that it froze the oxygen in the atmosphere and created a wall of ice that collided with the tornado, creating an explosion of steam.

Liu appeared in front of the woman and crystal wings appeared on her back, giving her the ability to float as she control the particles in the area around her. This was something that she couldn't completely master before, but now, she was able to do it, and she even had the feeling that she could do more than just control these particles to make her float if she wanted it.

'What is this? I feel like I am overflowing with power. What happened to me? Shouldn't I get weaker instead?' Liu began to wonder about what Adam hide from her, but for the time being there was something more important.

"What are you?" Liu asked.

"What? A woman? A gift holder?" The woman also seemed surprised to see Liu.

"Blood? What kind of monster is that?" Liu mumbled, thinking about the possibility of a monster clothed with human skins. She even wondered how monsters could evolve to such a level, because from everything she experienced these last few hours, the probability of such a thing happening wasn't low, which made it more concerning, not only for her but also for everyone living in this world.

Liu became warier of the woman in front of her, and soon, there was a very tense atmosphere between the two of them as they began to stare menacingly at each other.

But suddenly, a disrupted the tense atmosphere. "Okay, please calm down ladies."

As soon as Adam said these words, Liu and the woman in black felt something.

'What? I can't use my power!' Both of them thought.

Then, they lost their ability to float in the air and fell to the ground.

"Hop!" Adam caught Liu in his arms and Cristal transformed into three magnetic chains then wrapped around the other woman's body and kept her afloat.

"That was dangerous," Adam said, looking at the frozen ground, "if we alert the monsters and they find this place, there will be no end to it. Still, I am glad that you and Zax are safe." He added as he slowly landed on the ground and let go of Liu who seemed a little bit confused.

Liu looked at Adam, and unlike before he was wearing clothes, even though they were still black because this color seemed to be Adam's favorite color when it comes to clothes, and had a ragged bag attached to his arm.

However, what confused Liu the most was the fact that for a minute she couldn't use her power, or more precisely, it became harder to use it. 'What was that? Did Adam do that?'

Without saying anything to Liu, Adam walked over to the mysterious woman and uncovered her face, and looked at her, then two crimson red eyes looked back at him.

"You.. Who are you?" The woman said, looking at Adam who also had red crimson eyes and black hair as if he was one of her kind.

"Sorry for this, but I don't think it's wise to attract the monsters' attention so unless you are ready to talk I will kill you here," Adam said, and his eyes weren't joking.

A plasma sword appeared in his hand and he swung it towards the woman's neck, but then he stopped when it grazed her skin.

Swoosh!

Red blood came out of her neck, and she couldn't use her power.

"So? What do you decide?" Adam asked.

"I understand. Let's talk." The woman said.

After that, Cristal released the woman and Adam also deactivated his power to see her reaction, but he still had the plasma sword in his hand.

However, after a few seconds, the woman didn't do anything, and Adam and she glared at each other.

Finally, Adam put away her swords and gestured for the woman to follow him, after a moment of silence. "Okay, let's go inside for now."historical