Prologue [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37jimrogxMw] I didn’t read many isekai stories, but I sure don’t remember the ones I did read talking about just how much it fucks with your head. When I got TRUCK’D, I wasn’t living on top of the world, sure, but I had people I cared about and things I was doing. And then just like that, I get it all snatched away from me. But mental turmoil comes later. What happened immediately after my unceremonious realm-hopping was total disorientation. I had been wearing a suit, that had been replaced a nice Cold War Belgian uniform. Always had liked those clown suits. I also found myself with the appropriate miscellanea, along with a Hi Power in a hip holster and an FAL with a sling. I didn’t know what had happened exactly, but I figured I’d roll with this for a bit until I did know. I wandered the woods till I found a road, and was promptly attacked by some local fauna. Wounded and rattled, I staggered down the road until I finally stumbled into a village, and promptly passed out from blood loss. I woke up a few days later to meet the woman my world was going to turn around for the foreseeable future. She introduced herself as Achtanyakat Dalisina, and asked how I was doing. I told her I was feeling alright, if a little drowsy, and mentally resolved that her name was too much a mouthful. From then on I’d call her Tanya. She explained that she’d been in town when I showed up, and the village folk had been smart enough to ask for a mage to help with someone in as bad a shape as me. That left me with a lot to think about. She was cute, for sure. And exotic too. I’d never seen an anthro in the flesh, since they don’t exist where I came from. And she was far from a normal anthro. Her form was vaguely canine, which led me to assume it was some sort of wolf. Her pelt was the real treat. Her hands and feet were a deep navy sort of blue. Most of her fur was a cool gray, but around her head, on the backs of her ears, her hips and butt, and the tail were all patterned almost like a clear night sky. The little white dots even shimmered with their own special light. That, along with neon blue anime hair made her eye catching. Her looks were paired with a winning personality. She was self-assured, but not haughty. She had a thing for the lost or injured creatures, like some sort of Disney princess. That’s what made me so interesting, and I would grow on her afterward. She nursed me to health and then got me into her adventuring party. While she was thrilled to have me in her party, the rest of them were skeptical about how much value I’d add. But as luck would have it, I got to prove myself almost as soon as we left the village. A pack of bandits blocked our path and demanded our valuables. Our party leader was just stepping forward to tell them to fuck off when I beat opened up with my FAL. Five double-tapped bodies later, and the party was convinced I’d be handy. But while I was handy for their adventuring, I was far from fine. I was an emotional wreck, and had decided the solution was to shut down completely. I was closer to an automaton than a human by the third day of our travels. I’d kill stuff that needed killing, and speak when spoken to, but I kept to myself otherwise and the party was happy to give me space. Everyone that is, except Tanya. She refused to let me sulk, instead constantly coming over to where I’d withdraw when we set up camp, and insisting on making small-talk. Her voice had a soothing quality to it, and I don’t know if that was a species thing or if she was just special. She’d talk until I looked a little less dour, and then she’d leave me to sleep. But her instance slowly pulled me out the hole I’d dug, and then pulled me into her heart. By the end of that first adventure, I was certain I wanted to spend more time with this girl. So we set out on our own, a dynamic duo taking up magic-related quests since I was just in it for her. She wanted to pursue her magical studies further, since she’d already graduated from Ringwood, which is roughly like this land’s prep school for mages. I wanted to smash me some wolf pussy, so I followed where she led. Besides, she needed muscle to back up her mage powers, and I provided that. As our completed quests piled up, so too did the months. I was sure, as my second winter in this world approached, that I wanted to marry Tanya. I just had to work up the courage to ask her. We took a short quest into some decrepit old manor, retrieved some shit, and scored an ancient magical text in the process. The high from another easy success was enough for me to decide to propose, and she said yes. I was the happiest man on this earth, but it wasn’t to be. That book we’d found was full of knowledge, and much of it Tanya already knew. But it also contained a section on black magic, which isn’t taught at Ringwood for obvious reasons. Apparently, the stuff draws its power from the nastier gods of this realm, and tends to corrupt its users in the process. They turn into various sorts of evil wackos and usually get put down. I didn’t know any of this, because I’d used Tanya as a crutch for this world’s history and she didn’t really want me to know what she was toying with. So I spent a few weeks at a village inn dreaming of our wedding, watching with mild concern as she studied this stuff that I didn’t understand but still had bad feelings about. I should have said something. That much is clear. But I didn’t, and it’s too late now. She decided one day to head into the woods and test one of these new spells out, and I insisted on coming with her. The first few seconds, everything seemed like it was aces. Then, she started straining. And then she started to scream. I knew shit was going down, but in my panic I froze for a few seconds. Only after she sank to her knees and the tears started to roll out of her shut eyes did I act. And by act I mean blindly rush her with no clear plan in mind. The bad juju defended itself and its work as I closed, and got blasted back a solid ten feet. The last thing I remember is her, still fighting, still screaming, and knowing I was powerless to help her. Chapter 1: Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sySlY1XKlhM I woke up to the soft but steady sound of rain on a window. I was in a bed, and it was clearly summer outside. I sat up and looked around, bleary-eyed. A little old lady stirred from a corner in the room and shuffled toward me. “How are you, dear?” Her voice was a little hoarse, but she seemed nice enough and this sure didn’t look like a witch’s lair, so I felt comfortable enough to answer. “I feel like I’ve slept for a week, but otherwise pretty good. What happened?” She let out one of those old lady chuckles, the sort she makes when she knows more than you. “Oh dear, you’ve been asleep much longer than a week. It was six months ago they brought you here.” You can imagine how that floored me. It did shake off the last of my drowsiness though, with the sudden swell of countless questions I desperately needed answers to. Intermingled in my questions were my last conscious memories. Tanya, in pain, and me powerless to help. She seemed to read my expression and said before I could ask, “You took quite a blast of dark magic. Nasty stuff, messes with the mind. It took some work, but I managed to fix what it had done to you. It must have been a glancing blow, or you wouldn’t be here now. Your body just needed all that time to get itself right.” “Did they find anyone with me?” I had two guesses what her answer was gonna be, and I didn’t like either of them. “No. Were you hoping they found whoever did this to you?” I nodded. “Well, you should go and talk to the adventurers. I’m much to old to worry about these sorts of things anymore. They might be able to help you though. Oh, and before I forget, those strange clothes of yours are sitting on that chair. Is their anything else you need?” I shook my head, and she left me to gather myself. Step one was to jump back in my uniform. Over the last year and a half, that uniform had become like a second skin. I felt naked without it. Wait, two years, I reminded myself. Just because I was conked out for six months doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. Once I was suited up, I set off for the local adventurers’ hall. Straight into the rain. Fucking figures. Oh well, I had bigger concerns, so I pressed on. Even as I hustled through the rain-soaked streets, I could tell this was the same village Tanya and I had been staying in before she tried that spell. So that was one piece of information. I formulated my plan as I jogged. Nobody found Tanya when they found me, so she must have slunk off somewhere. I had no idea where, or what condition she was in, but I knew damn well I was going to find out where. My plan had one slight hitch: none of the adventurers knew who I was. When I got to the hall, I walked up to the first party I saw and asked the leader for help. He turned, somewhat incredulously, and said, “With what?” “My fiancé disappeared six months ago and I’ve got to go get her!” I panted. His expression softened a little, but he didn’t say yes yet. “Do you know why she left?” Shit. I was worried he’d ask that question, but I figured I’d have as good a chance as any if I was honest. “She tried a dark magic spell. I got hit when I tried to help her, and I haven’t seen her since.” He watched my face to make sure I wasn’t full of shit, and then sighed and said, “Even if you had the money to make it worth our time, and by the looks of it you don’t, we still wouldn’t have any idea where to go.” As much as it stung, he was right. I had a few gold pieces, but most of my pockets were stuffed with tactically useful stuff; food, ammo, my knife, and so on. To the adventurers around me, I was just some strangely-dressed charity case who couldn’t pay and who wasn’t even really sure what he was chasing. Though I tried other groups, I faced disappointment at every turn. By midday (I guessed), I was nowhere. Nobody knew Tanya, or what happened to her, and they had absolutely no interest in helping me out. I had spent one of my few gold pieces on a lunch, which I had just sat down to eat when I spotted a lioness. She was set up in a corner of the hall, with all sorts of books and shit strewn around her. She had what looked like a flower suspended above her hand. But what really stuck out to me was her appearance. She wasn’t dressed like an adventurer, more like a regular traveler. She also looked nothing like the lions from my home world, so many years ago. Her fur was white, though not quite pure. And her head was surmounted by, long, well kept, and strikingly red hair. As I looked longer, I noticed the tail was bushier than I thought a lion’s were supposed to be. Who knew what she was. Well, I managed to stare too long, and she noticed me. I hastily redirected my gaze, but she was already on to me and decided to wander over. She sat down across from me, a little heavily, and introduced herself. “Hi! I’m Keital Armingard. Are you an adventurer?” I stopped just short of blurting out “yes,” and thought a minute. Am I really an adventurer? With the treatment I’d gotten here I almost doubted it. But if I wasn’t an adventurer, I’d just be a hobo with a penchant for violence. So I said yes. “Well, you look kinda glum, mister. What’s the matter?” Now in any other circumstance, I would have kept my shit to myself. But I’d just woken up to find out Tanya had smacked me into next summer and then fucked off to who knows where. I was at my wits end and needed to vent. “My fiancée messed around with some black magic, and ended up putting me in a coma. Now I’m awake and she’s gone missing. Nobody knows where she went, and all I wanna do is find her.” “What kind of spell was it; do you know?” Not the answer I’d expected, but it sure wasn’t unwelcome. I racked my brain for a minute, trying to recall it. It was a fireball on steroids, juiced with black magic to give it a little more oomph, and cursing the wounds so they would be harder to heal. The white lion beamed and said “Oh, the fireball of Grnall! I know that one!” “You do?” “Sure! Grnall was a lesser demon of war. He created that spell to give his fireballs more power. He got imprisoned a few centuries ago under the provincial capital, Vithnen. The legend says that when he got imprisoned, he put another curse on the spell, so that anyone who tried to use it would be corrupted, and made his servant. Ever since then, anyone who gets corrupted by his magic get called their to try and free him.” This blessed lady of exposition has just given me new hope. I was fucking ecstatic. I reached across the table and shook her hand, saying, “thanks Kite. I really needed a lead. I saw you messing with that flower earlier, are you a mage?” She nodded, so I continued, “Cool. You can come along if you’d like, I don’t really have anyone to help me right now.” Apparently, it was her turn to be ecstatic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a girl happier than Keital in that moment. She looked about ready to dance all across the hall. But she contained it to a girlish squeal of joy and then profuse thanks. A few of the adventurers near us gave me looks, but I figured they were just off-put by Keital’s hijinks. Fuck ‘em. I had a direction, and a new adventuring buddy; I was set. Chapter 2: I’ll Never Find Another You [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QISuv4qoJYM] We set out at sunrise the next morning, heading for the pass through the Harbeck Mountain range. There’s only one road between this little village we started in and Grafsburg, which sits at the foot of the range and acts a gatekeeper of sorts. It was hard to think it’d been more than six months since I’d travelled this road, because it felt like I’d just come to this village that’d brought me so much misfortune. We were making good time, but I noticed that Keital looked a little uncomfortable. At first I just ignored it, chalking it up to first-timer jitters. But as midmorning approached, she still seemed uncomfortable. It suddenly occurred to me that I’d been thus far wrapped in my own thoughts, wondering about where Tanya had gotten to, what she’d be like when I found her, and, worst of all, if I could save her at all. Of course, Tanya was used to my ability to lose myself in my own head, but Keital hadn’t traveled with me before, and I was suddenly realizing just how awkward this extended silence must be making her feel. So I cast a look over my shoulder and said, “Hey Keital, you doin’ good back there?” She instantly perked up, and let out a chipper “Yep!” in response. In my old life, I’d made a habit of getting other people to talk about themselves, thus sparing me the risk of exposing my powerlevel. I tried it here, and it turned out Keital was just exactly the right kind of girl to do it to. “So where you from, anyway?” I started with. “Oh, I come from one of the villages to the south. There’s a bunch of white lions there, I think we’re a regional ethnicity. I certainly haven’t read about any others like us elsewhere.” “And what made you decide adventuring was the thing for you?” She thought a little about that one, and then said “I’ve had a love of books as long as I could read, which was early on. My parents could tell I had big dreams, and our little village would feel more like a prison than a home eventually. So they encouraged me to study stuff that I could use while I traveled. I guess I settled on adventuring because it lets me go anywhere I want. What about you?” That was a pretty easy question to answer. Hell, it was easier than most of the questions people asked me before I came here. “I’m actually from another world. Got kicked here a year and a- wait, two years ago. Tanya, the girl we’re looking for, found me after a dire wolf tore me up pretty good, and then invited me into her party. Been adventuring ever since.” Keital was just fixing to say something else when there was an awful commotion in the brush about a hundred yards ahead of us. There’s an old saying about speaking of the devil, and it seemed I’d fallen victim to it. We stood frozen as a half-dozen dire wolves burst from the underbrush in front of us, before reorienting themselves toward us. Now dire wolves are rather aptly named. They look like wolves and hunt like wolves, but they come about as big as horses with the temper of a grizzly bear. Ever since that one loner mangled me when I first came here, I harbored a special hatred for them. It only took them a few beats to find us and rush. I did the reasonable thing and began emptying my first magazine into the onrushing furry mass. I killed two and wounded a third by the time they were on top of us and things got dicey. I lept off the road to the right as one tried to bite me in half, then fumbled with my bayonet trying to fix it and finish the rest of the big bastards. I’d just gotten it on the rifle when the wounded one grabbed hold of my leg and started shaking me like a chew toy. I could see Keital try something out of the corner of my eye, but whatever she tried failed miserably and she scrambled into a tree instead, with two of the wolves hot on her heels. The wounded warrior with me in his mouth got headbutted by the last one, who apparently wanted a turn. That gave me an opening as I rolled free and sprang back to my feet. My right ankle felt like shit even with the adrenaline, but I pushed through the pain and pushed my bayonet through the fresh wolf’s eye. He yelped and then shook off my blade to die somewhere. His wounded compadre lunged at me, too slowly, and I buried the knife, along with most of the barrel and handguard, in the back of his throat. I rolled away from him as he thrashed around choking on his blood. Seeing as the last two healthy ones had apparently taken the hint and hit the road, I reloaded and put the one in front of me out of his misery. “Hey Keital, you good?” I hollered out. A muffled “yep” came from a tree behind me and to my right, as she shimmied herself out of it. Now I’ll admit I was a little curious about the lack of help she’d been, but I was more worried at that moment about whether she was wounded, and if the two survivors wanted to try again. She was fine, and successfully cast a healing spell that fixed up the worst of what had been done to my ankle, and the other two wolves never did show up. As the sun sank into the last third of its arc, we crested the last hill between us and our point of rest, Eirplatt. It wasn’t supposed to be much bigger than the village we’d left, but I could tell from here that something was off. As we got closer it became clear. The town looked like a fucking tornado had rolled right down the main drag. There was an inn, freshly rebuilt, and a tavern a few places down, but most of the other buildings were either ashy ruins or being rebuilt. I left Keital in charge of securing us lodgings, seeing as she actually had money, while I went to find a healer to make sure my ankle would be good. The apothecary was in a state of semi-repair when I finally found it. The walls were completed in one portion, probably where the guy lived, while the place he worked was patchy, with holes up higher. The healer himself was a human in the later stages of life, but with a kindly air about him. As he examined my leg, I asked him about the devastation around me. “Oh, that was that wolf lady,” he said matter-of-factly. “She came in here like a whirlwind a few months back, and just went to laying down anything she could find. Killed quite a few of the townsfolk, mostly poor saps who tried to stop her. She left once everyone was either dead or hiding.” My heart was already sinking, but I asked him if he saw what she looked like anyway. “She was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Her fur sparkled like the night sky. Looked like the heavens themselves had taken shape to kill us.” Fuck. Not only was Tanya MIA and possessed by evil spirits, she was killing indiscriminately and pulverizing any villages she met. What the hell was I gonna do with her once I caught up to her?