The Army

Dave's brain short-circuited as he tried to process the young man's words.

'Go... with him?' Dave's calculative abilities were insufficient to even begin making sense of the world at this current time.

"Ah, well, I did want to go back home to continue livestreaming" As Dave's brain malfunctioned, his tongue let out his innermost desires.

"Livestreaming? What's that?" Klein asked as he nudged Dave to follow him.

"Ah - ah? Well... Wait" Dave had just processed what he had just said before his brain conjured up a horrific possibility.

'No wait, please... no!' Dave fiddled with his phone and attempted to connect to the internet.

His blank eyes looked at the screen in despair as the phone slipped from his fingers.

'No... internet...' Dave looked blankly at Klein, who had just caught the strange rectangular-shaped device.

Klein looked at the screen of the rectangle and attempted to probe it with his fingers, just like how he saw the alien man do it. To his surprise, the response was almost instantaneous as he began navigating through it. He looked up briefly and saw the deepest despair in the man's eyes.

"Hey, what's so upsetting?" Klein asked before focusing back on the rectangle.

"There's no... internet..."

"What's that?"

Dave snapped back to reality, and seeing Klein about to open his saved pictures, he reacted in panic by snatching his phone back.

'Phew...' Dave sighed in relief.

Klein paused; his finger still in mid-air in a tapping gesture.

"So, what's internet?" Klein asked, pretending he was okay with having one of the most fascinating artifacts he had ever seen being taken from his possession.

Dave sighed, and after a moment of thought, he looked at the impatient army captain behind Klein holding their assault rifles.

His eyes lit up as he thought of something.

"I'll explain it on the way. I'm coming with you, right?"

"Ah, so you decided? Nice, oh, I'm Klein by the way"

"... Dave"

"So Dave, explain to me why your carriages explode. Oh, and also that rectangle. And internet, what's that? You aliens are seriously fascinating. Did you say you don't have mages? Seems like there's some other force or power you use. Could you teach me? Oh and also that huge metal bird..." Klein rambled on and on as the brightness never left his eyes for a moment.

Dave sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

This... was going to be a long day

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Captain West's lips twitched as he watched the entire interaction between Klein and Dave.

"Cap, do you think we've made a mistake? That guy seems a bit... crazy?" Lieutenant Sid carefully asked.

Captain West sighed as he glanced over at the Academy students and the scar-faced man who nonchalantly began resuming their activities.

After he began a demonstration to the students with magic, his eyes opened wide and his mouth hung open.

"L-Lieutenant, do you see that?"

There was only silence, as the newly arrived army squad could do nothing but gape at the unfamiliar and extraordinary sight of a man disappearing, and reappearing many feet away.

Or at another floating in the sky.

Or at another conjuring fire in their hands.

Gulp.

"Y-yes. I think we made a mistake." The Captain muttered under his breath. He should've been more careful.

As he was deeply immersed in the spectacle, his walkie talkie received a transmission.

"Tzzzt... Aircraft sighted... Tzzzt .... Over"

West jolted awake, and sent one of his own.

"Alpha one to delta two. Requesting location, over" 

"Tzztt... Uhh... Location... No idea. Closest landmark is a cool-looking waterfall. Never seen it before...Tzzzt.... Over"

"Affirmative. Wait until we arrive, over" Captain West facepalmed himself. What was he thinking asking for a location in this situation?

He sighed. It seems like all the infrastructure of the army will take a long while before it can be operational again, if at all.

He glanced back at the mages who were now engaged in single combat with each other, casting colorful spells at each other and shook his head.

'Best not to think about it'

Captain West communicated with the rest of the squads, and ending up agreeing to rendezvous at the waterfall, promising to give a more accurate description of the location when he made it there.

"Hey, kid. Do you know where we can find a cool-looking waterfall?" Lieutenant Sid had heard the entire radio communication and approached Klein and his new friend.

"Ah, yes, of course, would you like me to lead the way?" Klein giggled as he pat the lieutenant's shoulders and started to lead them.

Dave followed half-reluctantly, half in anticipation.

He was going to see if the army had any way to salvage internet connection. He simply couldn't imagine a life without it.

The squad members looked at each other and shrugged, and the captain sighed again before following the strange blue-robed young man.

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 Mr. Weathers glanced at the foreigners, and then remembered the old man he had taken with him.

'Why did I drag him here again?' Weathers pondered. That was when it finally clicked for him.

Wasn't it Klein's suggestion to do so? Did he just want to laugh at him for his wasted effort, knowing that it wouldn't even help much?

Weathers sighed, glancing back at the army squad who were now being lead by the problematic young student.

"Good luck" He whispered.

He couldn't help feeling sorry for those foreigners.

'Speaking of which...'

He looked at the now substantial crowd of foreign observers staring at their Academy's combat class.

Mr. Weathers thought that they were making a large commotion over trivial things, not knowing that the concept of magic and mages were purely fictional for these people until that moment. Klein, of course, had failed to give him that bit of information to make life more difficult and interesting for him. 

'Can't leave them out there, Guess we could bring them in. I think we had a trans-species communication device in the storage...'

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Klein hopped over a bicycle, and then over a packet of chips that had been blown out of a garbage bin. He then walked between the rubble of a half-standing apartment complex, down along the slope of a hill where a familiar river greeted him. He meandered along the path leisurely, taking in more of the sights he hadn't focused on.

He completely disregarded his followers who were having trouble understanding why they were turning back every so often.

"Cap, do you think he has any idea where he's going" Lieutenant Sid finally couldn't help himself and whispered to the captain.

Captain West remained silent, and then muttered back "Just follow."

'Alien culture is really fascinating, but also...' As Klein continued observing the marvels around him without a care in the world, and made a rather astute observation.

"...Kinda ugly" Klein verbalized his thought, turning to Dave, who was walking half a pace behind him. 

"Huh? You say something?" Dave asked, his eyes still somewhat dim as he began contemplating the reality of his situation.

"Yes, I just said that you aliens make things look rather ugly. Is there any deeper meaning to it?"

Dave blankly stared at Klein before shaking his head. He really didn't want to respond or interact with the lunatic anymore.

Klein stroked his chin before looking ahead.

"Ah we're here" He said as he turned back to the army squad.

Beyond them they saw a few people carrying assault rifles in military uniforms just like them, along with a group of distressed civilians. A huge airplane was tilted sideways, its nozzle having taken significant damage upon greeting a few trees when landing.

The aircraft had already deployed its emergency inflatable slide, so passengers were able to exit without much difficulty.

Their mental state, however, upon having crash-landed, and then meeting armed military men, could not be said to have been good.

Needless to say, they had no idea yet that the crash-landing was the least of their concerns; but they would soon find out that their world had already ended.

Klein and the others took in the spectacle and slowly made their way to the squads who had somehow managed to find this place.

"Captain West, you're here" A squad captain approached them and greeted West.

"Yes, somehow we made it. Could you explain what's going on here?" West asked.

"No, not really I'm afraid. Other than the fact that everyone on that plane survived. We were about to head to the white castle your squad had found, but then we a plane fall in this direction" The other captain, Captain Alex, gestured to the civilians behind him.

"Right. I wouldn't advise going to that castle. I think we should head to the barracks and try to contact army command. They might have restored comms by now" West tiredly said. They had been conducting a routine exercise only a few hours ago. How did things get so strange so quickly?

He had no idea how his family were doing. Whether or not they were experiencing the same phenomenon or not. And that went for most of his comrades too.

"Right. We should wait for the other squads to arrive, and then return to the barracks. By the way, I've been meaning to ask, who is that?" Captain Alex gestured towards the blue-robed youth who was staring at something beyond the airplane.

"Ah... I'll explain when everyone's here" West rubbed his temples in exhaustion. He shouldn't have taken the wizard with them.

Through all the commotion and hubbub brought about by their arrival, Klein had only one thought in his head as he stared into the distance.

'Thank goodness the waterfall is okay'