Refugees From Afar

Just before Nagan could take a rest, two gargantuan silhouettes began to encroach the edge behind the settling dusts.

On the left side, was a 30 meters centaur-like monster with throbbing, glowing green veins all over its body. The upper body was that of a tall uniform of metal, unleashing greenish gas that covered its surroundings as the funnel-like white pipes on its horse-ish back was controlling the gas into a, inward vortex, spreading the green even further than it was supposed to.

On the right side, was a 20 meters tall humanoid knight consisting of moss, metal, with cracks that exposed its wound, spiraling black flesh, dripping blue fluorescent bodily liquid as its trail of identification. One of its hands was holding a giant hammer made from the same fleshy material, while the other was holding what might appear to be a snapped-off banner from its long gone glory.

"Heh, this is more like it." Nagan stood up once again with a wide grin on his face, as he attempted to activate his {Primal Wrath} again. "I don't usually take an extra serving, but not finishing everything is a sin within table manners."

Just before the three powerhouses could clash, the ground below the two giants collapsed. Despite their sheer towering size, there was nothing left of them, as if they were consumed by the earth itself.

"Huh."

Nagan wasn't sure of what was happening. His instinct didn't react much to this phenomenon, which assured him that it was harmless to him.

He triple checked the situation, making sure that he wasn't under any kind of influence, and it turned out he wasn't under any kind of influence. He scanned the surroundings to find a sign of his rabbit wife and she was in a fine condition, playfully waving at her husband with a satisfied smile, probably after witnessing his fight with the feisty cyclop.

And just before he finally convinced himself that nothing was wrong, and he could finally go back to his search mission finding the mouse people whereabout, a head popped out from the ground in front of him.

It was the head of an emotionless boy with a pair of round rodent ears on the top of his head that cradled an ethereal purple fire respectively. This boy was staring at him with such an interest, akin to a toddler finding a smooth, round object that he had never seen before. And immediately after that, another head popped out right beside the boy.

This time it was a mouse girl, smiling at Nagan as if she was about to receive a new year's money after all of the good deeds she had done. And then another head popped out beside the two of them.

One of them pulled herself out of the ground, revealing a thin teenage body covered by a black kimono-like apparel raced with symbolic patterns made from gold silk. This mouse girl then silently pointed to the ground as she tilted her head, as if asking for a confirmation.

Not really knowing what was happening, Nagan also instinctively tilted his head.

The mouse girl then gave him a thumbs up.

Nagan, still not knowing what was happening, replied to the mouse girl with a thumbs up of his own, albeit in confusion.

The mouse girl nodded, before clapping her hands twice. The other two mouse folks burrowed once again to the ground. After a few second, the ground collapsed as if everything below them was hollow all along.

"GAH!?"

Before everyone knew it, Owen was already following along, falling to the near limitless hole with a comfy smile on his face.

"So, are they the ones you saw?" Nagan asked with a deadpan face behind the mask.

"Yep~ not mistaking it~"

It took a whole minute of falling as the mute mouse girl smiled with pride for something that both Nagan and Owen couldn't find about. Before they hit the ground, there was a mystical breeze that reduced the speed of the fall into a state akin to floating. Everyone finally touched the ground with a gentle embrace.

And what was waiting for both of them was more mouse folks within a large space connected to the landing site. There were probably around a hundred of them, frolicking and running about, doing something with the soil and minerals using some sort of telekinetic prowess.

Some rough infrastructure could be seen, made out of clay, soil, and rock that were formerly occupying this large space. The lighting of the place was done by placing a spiritual torch and braziers lit from the same fire that resided within the mouse folks ears. In fact, the fire on their ears was enough to be used as a guiding light when they were doing some tunneling work.

The mouse girl then gestured her hand toward the hidden civilization, welcoming the two foreign entities into their haven. She looked proud when doing, as she placed both of her hands on her hips with chest puffed after a work well done.

Immediately afterward, another mouse boy approached the two, before gesturing his open hand toward the place.

"Maybe he was telling us to follow him?" Owen glanced at her husband.

"Sure," Nagan said audibly, with a slight modification of tone using the voice changer feature. "Lead the way."

The mouse boy nodded up and down before walking toward the busy space, 

As they walked, some of the mouse folks were curious enough to stare and follow their curious guests, some didn't care and just minded their own task at hand.

It was easy to notice that the mouse folks possess no advanced technology within their civilization. Then again, they might be a refugee coming from another world, hoping that their next destination would be kinder to welcome their proselytization, only to find out that the world they were heading to was in the same state as their own.

They might also lack the means to perform another world hopping, unlike the usalian where their queen could easily connect places from two different worlds.

After quite the walk, the mouse guide stopped as he placed both hands behind his back.

Immediately after, another head popped out from the ground. It was a happy mouse girl with long white hair and pristine eyelashes of the same color, smiling with exuberance toward both of her newfound guests.