1 Prologue

Within a dark, labyrinthian cave system, two girls were running at almost superhuman speed. The one in the lead had long golden hair and was relaxedly jogging, while the other had long golden yellow hair in the form of a ponytail and was trying really hard to keep up. Loud roars occasionally resounded in the darkness that was only kept at bay by a ball of light hovering over the latter girl's staff.

"Ais, wait up!"

Hearing her companion's exhausted plea, the girl in front, Ais Wallenstein, slowed down her pace and came to a halt after decelerating for a few meters. She wore a white and black battlecloth, black arm covers and long, blue boots. Over this she had fastened a few pieces of armour to keep her safe in this perilous place: a headguard, a breastplate, arm guards, hip guards, and knee guards. An elegant and thin longsword with a blue hilt was strapped to the left side of her hip, resting in its sheath. Her golden eyes looked at the girl following her with concern and care, while she responded curtly, her face expressionless.

"Lefiya, you okay?"

Having heard her name being spoken in Ais' gentle voice, Lefiya Viridis' long and pointy ears flapped slightly while a light blush crept up her face. Her dark blue eyes darted around a bit before finally overcoming her embarrassment. Like all mages, she didn't wear armour, but instead robe-like attire. In her case, this consisted of a short red cape on top of a white shirt and pink corset dress. A purple bow hung at her collar and her legs were mostly covered by white stockings and pink shoes. The expensive-looking white staff in her hands had a golden metallic tip in the shape of an opening bud, housing a blue crystal.

After heaving heavily for a few seconds, Lefiya finally looked up at Ais and smiled happily.

"Thank you for worrying, I'm fine now. Sorry for dragging you down!"

Before Ais could do more than blink and tilt her head in slight confusion, because Lefiya, in her eyes, wasn't being a burden at all, a few much louder roars than any they had previously been exposed to reverberated within the dark passage.

"Close!"

Leaving just this single word, Ais instantly shot off towards a branching path as if she had been fired by a missile launcher, forcing the exhausted Elf to desperately run after her again.

Seconds later, what came into Ais' field of view was a host of various different monsters, consisting of cow headed humanoid monsters called Minotaurs, dog monsters with flames spewing out of their mouths called Hellhounds and tiger monsters called Ligerfangs. They were surrounding a peculiar phenomenon while roaring madly. The aforementioned phenomenon was something that instantly brought Ais' charge to a halt, while her eyes widened in disbelief. This gave Lefiya just enough time to catch up to her, before staring at the same exact spot that Ais was looking at, almost not daring to trust her own eyes.

The large and dark chamber was lit up by a dark blue vortex seemingly leading towards a pitch black, void-like space. The vortex was almost 50 meters in diameter and hovered in midair, 40 meters above the ground. A primordial and intimidating energy was surrounding the vortex, making a shiver run down both of the girls' spines involuntarily. From within the void, really slowly, a human body descended. It was the body of a young man, seemingly around 18 or 19 years old, who looked slightly muscular. His eyes were closed and he had short, brown hair that was strongly ruffled by the energy the vortex dispersed. A white shirt, grey pants and blue-white shoes clad his body and looked completely out of place.

Before any more observations could be made about the mysterious young man, both girls were brought back to reality when the vortex suddenly disappeared and his pair of blue-green eyes opened. A look of panic overcame the handsome face, followed by a loud curse.

"God dammit, why am I in midair?!"

While Lefiya hadn't yet realized the severity of the situation because she was still distracted by the power displayed by the vortex that had just disappeared, Ais had already recognized the problem. The young man was, unexpectedly, completely and utterly powerless, like an ordinary human being. He was also currently 40 meters above the ground in a dark cave, in midair - and glared upon by more than twenty monsters that could tear far stronger people apart even in a one versus one scenario.

Without spending any time thinking about what horrible kind of luck a person would have to encounter to end up in such a situation, Ais jumped into the air towards the young man with a resolute but still mostly expressionless countenance, trying to save him. Less than a second later, she gently caught him in a princess carry position, before glancing at his face really quickly, intending to look away and focus on the surrounding monsters on the ground after she had made sure he was safe. But the moment she gazed into his eyes, something that she could have never expected occurred.

Her heart, the heart of a girl who cut off most of her emotions, a heart that hadn't beaten faster than necessary to ensure continued survival ever since she had been separated from her mother… started beating extremely rapidly, causing her to blush heavily, mirroring the young man in her arms, whose cheeks had started to redden as well. There was primarily one thing that she could make out in his eyes, and it resonated with her on an almost spiritual level - devastating loneliness. Before she could even think about turning her head away, her boots had already made contact with the ground, right next to the monsters that she had originally planned to swiftly deal with.

She instinctively knew that from this moment onwards, her life would never be the same.