The SubStation

How much he had wanted to get far away from troubles. But it seems like it wasn't in his luck to get away from them. Miguel wanted to cry looking at the duo. He had thought he would flee away with the ring before the queen knew about it. But no, it was his bad luck to try his luck on her treasure.

[3…2…]

The duo reached near him. The leader swiped its claw in his direction as it propelled its body. While the queen bee, a little far away, the sting separated from her body hurling as a beam in his direction.

[1...]

To Miguel all of it felt dreamy in that instant. The leader's claw inches away from ripping his head off his neck while the sting, ripping his clothes, making its way toward his skin. It all slowed out around him. How much he wanted to enjoy a normal life away from any tension, was this too much to ask.

[0]

[Connection Successful.]

A blinding flash developed the whole area. The leader and even the queen seemed to have gone blind under the brightness. The blinding flash pulsed for a moment and Miguel disappeared along with it. And Kha'zix, his dead body was nowhere to be found.

The duo creatures stopped in their tracks after missing their target. They looked at each other, a deep confusion visible on each of their faces.

A deep floating bubble shimmered in the darkness. Miguel and one other person were getting bored inside that bubble.

Miguel looked toward the other person with his hand on his cheek. The clinging creature imitated his posture while sitting on his shoulders. Miguel still couldn't believe that the person in front of him was the same creature.

"Are you sure you are Kha'zix?" He asked again for certainty. The bubble floated in the unknowing darkness. A light would occasionally reflect, illuminating the place in almost a wave-like pattern.

"Just because I don't have my sharp fangs, you think I can't bite you?" Kha'zix smirked as he replied.

"I am not talking in that sense. Don't you find it weird?" Miguel said, looking at the tall human standing in front of him. The human was at least a half foot taller than him. The creature who just reached to his stomach, now looked even bigger than him. It was truly something extraordinary.

"What's weird?" Kha'zix gray-eyes narrowed to look at Miguel. He would sometimes squat on the ground, as if he was in his previous form. But Miguel was more agreeable with him squatting like a creature rather than him becoming a human.

"Why did you change into a human?" Miguel asked perplexedly.

"How would I know?" Kha'zix roared at Miguel. "I don't even know how I arrived here."

"Relax. I wasn't trying to aggravate you. Do you remember your death?" Miguel asked again. He had to clear his doubts, when the strange screen wasn't telling him anything.

"I wasn't dead." Kha'zix said as he growled with a human face toward Miguel. It looked rather funny to see the creature like that.

"Alright, alright. Fine, you weren't dead." Miguel said. He was feeling quite good teasing Kha'zix.

Kha'zix sat on the ground, trying to imitate Miguel's way of sitting cross legged. Somehow, he had donned a good pair of matching black shirt and pants. Though Miguel didn't know how that was even possible.

"Before I was here. I could only understand tid-bits of some things. I was different from my folks. The only one like me was our leader." Kha'zix seemed to be talking to himself.

"But here, I can feel that I am different from before." He looked at his body.

"I look just like you, I am able to think things clearly. When previously my mind was working on intuition, now I feel like I can guide my mind. And it is different."

"And for the love of gods, what is this thing on my body?" Kha'zix looked with deep anguish toward his clothes. It was quite a comedic sight. The first thing Kha'zix had done arriving here was to check his clothes, the concept of clothes seemed quite distant to his mind.

" And why can't I rip it apart." Kha'zix tried to grab his clothes and rip them apart, but his fingers would just slide and it would lose its grip around his clothes.

"You don't need to get rid of those clothes. '' Miguel waved for Kha'zix. Kha'zix, relaxed his hands to look at Miguel.

"Why?"

"Because, these things protect our body from external things. Like germs, bacteria and viruses. And also it looks cool" Miguel said patiently.

"Why do I need those? I have my skin and claws to protect myself." Kha'zix frowned.

"Yes, it could protect you. When you had the body of the creature. But now you are just like me. And our bodies aren't tough like yours. It needs protection."

"That's why. I see. You creatures are so weak." Kha'zix smirked. He looked quite proud of his predator body. But his smirk loosened when he saw Miguel laughing at him.

"Why are you laughing?" He growled again.

"Because. Now you are the same as me." Miguel stood and patted Kha'zix shoulders. "Weak." He whispered slowly.

Kha'zix face darkened with those words. But before he could say anything.

The strange screen lit in front of them. It was so much bigger than before.

[Welcome to the substation.]

Miguel's vision darted to see that Kha'zix himself was looking at the same screen as him.

"Can you see it?" Miguel asked him.

"See what?" Kha'zix said he was really annoyed with Miguel.

"The screen over there." Miguel pointed toward the red screen.

"Which screen?" Kha'zix looked in that direction. And then turned to Miguel again asking, " And what is a screen?"

"You can't see it." Miguel murmured, looking down and then asked again. " Then where were you looking?"

"I wasn't looking at anything. You turned to look at something. I wanted to see what it was." Kha'zix said as he roared again. "And don't think I am stupid, by asking these questions. I could have ripped your neck if I wanted."

"Sorry. I won't tease you again." Saying that Miguel started looking at the screen. So the screen wasn't visible to Kha'zix, but only him even when it was responsible for bringing them here.

This time Kha'zix turned in another direction, to look away from Miguel. The clinging creature jumped around the bubble wall. It's small mouth squealed in excitment. At least it was more entertaining.

[You have arrived at the substation. This is a virtual space designed for the player's safety. As they transit between the world and the Fallen TImes.]

'Well congratulations.' Miguel thought. 'I don't even know what that means.'

The screen changed to identify the artifact's name. The inscriptions arranged themselves, forming text.

[Fallen Artifact: Name Unknown.]

'The artifact must have been the ring.' Miguel thought again. So the strange screen doesn't know the artifact's name. The screen changed again.

[New Mission]

[Every Artifact has a name. Identify the true name of the artifact.]

[Mission Goal: Identify The Artifact True Name]

[Mission Reward: Artifact Synchronicity +5%]

Miguel's disinterest was fully written on his face. Even if the artifact was able to do magic. He had no interest in going around looking for its true name, which might not even exist.

[Identifying the Imprint.]

[Imprint Identified.]

[Urkaff Era]

"Urkaff Era?" Miguel mouthed without realizing.

"Huh what?" Kha'zix turned to look at him.

"Nothing." Miguel smiled apologetically toward Kha'zix.

"Weird."

Somehow, the ring might have belonged to the Urkaff Era. But how will he know how to find the traces? Miguel was thankful for the ring and the strange screen to save him from those two monsters. Thinking about them still gave goosebumps to Miguel. But he had no desire to remain in this place forever.

He needed to get out somehow. With that thought the other screen took the place of the previous one.

An interactive screen that looked similar to a game's loading screen.

[Creating a Mission Scenario…]

[Participants.]

[1. Miguel Ohara, Level 0]

[2. Kha'zix, Level 4]

[3. Koro, Level ???]

[Identifying Player Levels…]

[Setting Difficulty…]

[Difficulty Confirmed]

[Mission Scenario Confirmed]

The screen stopped changing itself. Miguel was holding his breath as he looked at the screen, waiting for it to change. But even when Miguel exhausted himself, the screen didn't change again.

Now he could finally look at the other things. The strange screen was talking about some mission. Miguel was not ready for it. Especially when he had just avoided death. And this time though, even the self healing won't work.

Miguel had only seen the text after arriving here. After he was fully free from all the running and hiding. There was a penalty for critical healing. His self healing won't work again for one whole month. It wouldn't have been a problem if he was in the real world. But this was an unknown world. And nobody knew the next thing that could happen here.

His eyes traced the player list. It was true that Kha'zix was much more powerful than him, but who was this Koro? And then it suddenly clicked him. The only other creature who had followed them both to this bubble.