Chapter 288 - 288: Too Small
"Run! It's going to eat us!"
The hurried steps of two children drummed through Van's ears as they ran away from him. They seemed to be unusually curious about him, but as soon as he stood up after being hit in the head once more, the two turned around and ran away, dropping the thick branch they were poking Van with.
Van could only let out a sigh as he picked up the branch, using it to support his still throbbing body. The last thing he remembered was being swallowed by the ball of light that devoured everything in its path. And when he came to, he was being smacked in the head by two oversized children.
If he survived the light, wouldn't that mean that the others did too? Was it actually some sort of wide-range Portal that transported all of them?
Considering there were 8 weird-looking moons in the sky, without a doubt, this is another world.
The 8 moons looked inherently different from each other as if they were colossal islands of their own, each holding different seasons of the year; without a doubt, they were Fragmented worlds close to each other. They looked quite near, but Van realized that it was only due to the fact of how colossal they actually were.
It was faint and barely even visible, but Van could see something connecting the Fragmented worlds. A light of some kind.
Was he on Mount Olympus? No, but Mount Olympus was supposed to be destroyed. And so, with that thought, the only thing that Van could think of was that he was inside another Fragmented World, and the 8 moons that he was seeing were other Fragmented worlds close to each other.
Van then opened his System to try and see if there was some kind of Objective or Labor for him to complete but to his surprise…
"System Window."
"..."
"...System Window!"
"Status Window!"
"..."
No matter how many times he called for his System, it wasn't appearing.
"W… what?"
Van then started to panic and immediately tried to use his skills. And as soon as the leaves that were falling around him slowed down, he let out a long and deep sigh of relief. His eyes then emitted a trail of golden lightning, before he blurred where he was standing.
A shield also suddenly appeared in front of him out of thin air, and branches writhed their way from the ground as he raised his hand. All of his skills were still there, still activating them as he did before… but something felt different that Van still could not determine.
Van then shook his head off of the thoughts. Now that he confirmed he still had his powers, his priority right now should be finding Artemis and the others. If the ball of light was indeed a huge Portal, then they were definitely here.
Van once again looked around him. The trees of this Portal were even bigger than the trees back when they visited Africa, almost making him feel smaller than he already was.
He tried to see if the Portal entrance was near him, but as far as he could see, there were only the tall trees, as well as the markings of a road, most probably from being driven through by carriages.
"..." A road, plus two grey-skinned children? More and more, Van was starting to think this might not be a Portal. But for now, that was his conclusion; it might also be a Pit like the one they had in America, where a new civilization had already flowered… but grey-skinned children?
Van then shook his head as he supported himself with the branch the children left behind. If he was going to get answers, then it was from them. He decided to walk towards where they ran off to, not using his speed as he might miss something along the way.
Van had to walk for almost half an hour before he could hear activity in front of him, and based on the noise, there were a lot of people hustling and bustling around. Van didn't immediately run straight towards the direction of the noise, instead, he hid behind the nearest tree he could find to examine whatever settlement was in front of him.
And to his surprise, it was a small village, a hamlet. There weren't any walls to protect them from the outside, as the houses, which were also gigantic in size, were just separated from each other with their own tall but sparse fences.
Was he right, then? This was some sort of Pit that was allowed to grow into their own civilization? No… it was probably not.
The people that were moving around the hamlet all had grey-skin… and were abnormally tall. If Van wasn't mistaken, then the adults were probably as tall as Hercules, maybe even taller.
"..." Were they monsters, then? Will Van be kicked out of the Portal once he kills all of them?
A trail of golden lightning then emerged from Van's eyes as his hand took off a chunk from the tree when he disappeared. He summoned his shield as he rushed towards the hamlet, but before he could mow down the nearest individual, his eyes caught the attention of the two children that woke him up earlier.
They were being carried by their mother, or most specifically, being thrown around as the smiles on their faces were almost unyielding. This immediately made Van stop, causing the giant in front of him to shriek as Van suddenly appeared in front of him, garnering the attention of the other people around them.
The two children that were playing with their mother, also let out a gasp as they pointed towards Van.
"T… that's him!"
"That's the monster we were telling you about, mother! I told you he's real!"
As soon as their mother turned her head towards Van, the smile on her face quickly faded. She quickly once again grabbed her children and ran inside back to her house. The other people near Van also ran away, and the man he almost rammed through even fell on his butt, crawling away in panic.
Suddenly, all of the giants that were leisurely doing their own things all went inside the house, leaving only a few who were now running towards Van with weapons in their hands. Van furrowed his eyebrows as he tightened his grip on his shield.
So they really were monsters, then? Van thought. But since they could talk, then Van would leave a few of them alive to answer some of his questions.
He was quickly surrounded by the grey-skinned giants, their weapons all pointed at him. They weren't wearing any armor or any protection, so Van thought that this would be easy. He was once again about to go into superspeed, but before he could do so, one of the grey-skinned giants spoke.
"We… we don't want any trouble here, dwarf!"
"Why are you here!? We… we have already paid our taxes!"
Van could not help but twitch his eyes as the unusually tall people that surrounded him started calling him a dwarf. He knew he was small, but there was no indication that he ever was a dwarf… all of his limbs are proportionate to the normal standards of-- Taxes?
Did these giants just say they were paying taxes? So they truly weren't monsters?
"...I am not a dwarf," Van then said as the shield in his hand disappeared, "I'm from America, which country is this Portal situated in? Have you seen a green-haired woman somewhere?"
"Not… a dwarf?"
The grey-skinned giants all looked at each other as soon as Van's words reached their ears. They then once again turn their heads slightly down to look at the small creature in front of them.
"If you're not a dwarf… what are you, then?"
This is really starting to piss him off, Van could not help but once again twitch his eyes, "...A growing human."
"A… human?"
"Human? Impossible, humans can't leave their realm."
"I have only been to the human's realm once, and even though they are small, they are not as small as you."
"..." Maybe he should just kill all of them, after all?
"Ah, perhaps you are a child, then? But even then, it makes no sense for one of your kind to be here!"
Once again, the grey-skinned giants pointed their weapons at Van. Van finally decided that he had enough and it was time for him to kill these monsters as he once again summoned Aegis, but then, what one of the giants said finally registered in his mind.
"Wait, did you say you have seen someone like me?" Van then looked towards the bald giant that mentioned it.
"No, I said I saw humans," the giant quickly replied.
"I am human!" Van could not help it anymore and shouted, "I'm just a little shorter than normal, okay!?"
With his scream echoing throughout the whole hamlet, Van could hear some of the houses closing their windows, it would seem that everyone was actually watching them.
"Look, can you just point to me where you saw… a human?"
"What do you mean where? Is this some kind of trick, dwa--"
Before the bald giant could finish his words, he felt his vision shift as he could feel the cold hard ground suddenly touching his face.
"Unhand him, dwarf! We have already paid our taxes!"
"If you call me a dwarf one more time, I am going to smash Aegis into this fucker's head," Van, who was standing on top of the bald giant, shook his head as he looked at the other grey-skinned giants one by one, "I am going to ask again, where did you see another human? Did you see anyone with green hair?"
Artemis's green hair was unusually unique, so if someone had seen her, they were more than likely not to forget about her.
"W… where else would I have seen another human!?" The bald giant tried to get up, but Van quickly stomped his foot to his back, causing him to groan in pain, "There, okay!? There! Happy!?"
Van then quickly looked towards where the bald giant was pointing to, only to see him pointing towards the largest of the 8 Fragmented worlds beyond the sky.
As soon as Van heard that, he quickly released the giant, stepping off him as he continued to look at the Fragmented world.
"There?" Van muttered, "Aren't there any other humans here?"
"What are you talking about?" The bald giant could not help but cough as he tried to recover himself, "Humans can't leave their realm, they will die. Of course, there aren't any--"
The bald giant then let out a slight gasp as he glimpsed at the feather tattoo behind Van's back, which slightly revealed itself with the hint of wind that pushed Van's tattered clothes.
"Y… you're not from Midgard!" The bald giant then quickly backed away,
"You're a High Human from Vanaheim!"
"...I'm a what, now?"
***My Hermes System Volume 3 --- END***
First of all, let me thank all of you who are still here, reading. Based on the stats dashboard, I have actually lost more 80% of my readers, which started dwindling at Chapter 180. But still, the 20% of you that still remains deserve a proper ending to this story...
...but not just yet.
As some of you may remember, the very first sentence in the Synopsis was "A Speedster in a Fantasy World", and this is the start of that.
What happened to everyone else? What about Van's universe, what about the Olympians' universe? What of the God-like Humans from the Seraph's world? Where is Van now?
In time, those will be answered. But for now, Van's story will continue. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am excited as to where his story will lead from this point on.
As always, thank you very much for still reading.