After no automatons had jumped out at Ondun or Strudel, he cautiously lowered the Lohengrim, quietly told Strudel to stay close and be ready to attack anything, and began checking the oddly-shaped ruined gateway. The shape nagged at Ondun as something he'd seen before in his travels, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Even so, he checked everything, looking for sensors or pressure plates or anything that might be a door that could unleash hordes of killer robots upon him and his charge.

  Sure, Ondun could handle it...but he really didn't want anything to happen to Strudel. He was growing attached to the oddly gentle monster puppy.

  Eventually, after a third circuit was complete, Ondun replaced the lance, confident that this out-of-place ruin wasn't going to immediately cause any trouble. While the adventurer had been in many Allemandian ruins and operated animatech devices of a number of different purposes, he'd never seen a device like this one. Carefully, Ondun brushed some leaves off a suspicious, mud-caked platform and saw that this was an active control device.

  Thankful for his luck, he decided to try logging into it, but every effort was rejected. Once again wishing Sid was here, Ondun thought and did the second-best thing he could think of: pulling out his new smartphone.

  He quickly found Dr. Wusiji's contact information and pressed 'Call.'

  Once the mad scientist picked up, Ondun immediately started. "Doctor, I've found an odd device here in the woods. I'm about a day and a few hours away from town. I recognize the general make of the device...it's from my world."

  Ondun could hear the man rubbing his hands excitedly on the other side of the line. "Ondun, listen to me very carefully. I'm going to tell you how to take a picture. I need you to send it to me. I'll tell you how."

  Over the next few minutes, Ondun fumbled with the not-quite-Allemandian technology of his smartphone, learning how to use the photography app to snap photos, then to share them with an instant messaging channel. As soon as he had uploaded the file and Dr. Wusiji had received it, he heard the scientist's seemingly trademark cackle on the other end of the line.

  "This is magnificent, MAGNIFICENT I SAY! Yes, technology from another world, on ours...yet it seems so advanced even compared to what I'm used to. That's a holographic screen; some companies have only started to do basic experimentation with that kind of display technology...and the shape of the device indicates some kind of inductive properties...hmmm." The scientist paused. "Ondun, would you do me a favor and stay there? I need to call the Guardian. With her interests and expertise, she may know something about this. In fact, probably set up camp. You may be there a while."

  The odd doctor then hung up before Ondun could get a further word in edgewise. He looked down at Strudel and shrugged.

  "Well...the doctor may be...very, very odd..." Ondun started, and Aquepup simply yelped, "Aque!" very clearly agreeing.

  "... But he makes a good point. Let's go just over there. I want to work on your elemental water techniques today. Have you ever seen a water jutsu done? It may give you some ideas."

  When Alice got the call from Dr. Wusiji, she'd just left a meeting with the civilian government of the Kongming Region. It had taken her some work to assure them the 'Otherworlder,' as he was now being called behind closed doors, wasn't actually an existential threat to the region or world security. Video of his bout with Sparkles had already been shared on social media, and people were wondering about every single subject of the Draconian. Memes were even being made in some cases.

  Granted, Alice shared all of those concerns, which is why she'd pulled two teleporters from her stables and had asked them both to be on standby. Just in case. Amethyst was ready to be drawn at a moment's notice, and some of her more unique monster friends were on her belt, in case she needed to get creative.

  "Guardian Alice. What is it, Dr. Wusiji?"

  "Your pet project, Ondun. He's found something. Sending you details now."

  The pictures that filtered over the satellite connection were sharp and clear. The good, crazy doctor had spared no expense getting Ondun a top-of-the line phone with a full scientific suite, all on the public dollar, of course. Even so, just this data was worth its weight in gold. She studied the odd ruins Ondun had found, just a day and a half or so out of town, based on GPS data.

  Something about the artifact was familiar. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. Was it related to the ancient hero of the region? A human woman? It had been so long, and when it came to legends in the days before the region had had civil war, after civil war, and the dozen or so name changes as different dynasties of imperial powers tried to leave their mark, trying to keep fact and fiction from melding into anything other than an amorphous blob of possible facts was hard...especially when monsters decided to make an archaeological site their nest.

  More so if those monsters were legendary-class monsters.

  "This is fascinating..." she started.

  "He was able to activate a holographic display on it. Whatever it is, it's old, advanced, and functional, to some extent."

  Alice tapped her lip, deep in thought. She released one of her teleporters. "Garamond, could you go tell the Prime Minister something came up that needs my personal touch? I may only be able to get with him on the Choson situation in two or three days. This could be big."

  The psychic monster saluted with its large green forearm blades, then blinked away to deliver Alice's message. She turned back to the conversation. "Amethyst and I can be there in four hours."

  "That's good. I told Ondun to just set up camp."

  Alice nodded. The doctor was being unusually helpful today. His normal approach to things was best described as a "Terratour in a tea shop." "Are you doing OK today, Dr. Wusiji?" she asked delicately.

  The man immediately grinned a disturbing grin. "How could I not? I got tissue samples, Guardian! We've learned so much about his biology, but more than that: Did you know that monsters have 'polarities' associated with them?"

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Alice shook her head but knew a Dr. Wusiji rant when she heard one coming on. "You'll have to tell me in person...after I get a look at this device. What I wonder is how it went undetected all this time. Surely a hunter, or the Rangers, or even poachers and criminal teams... surely even one of those factions should have found such an artifact and either had it dug up or sold it on the black market piece by piece."

  The odd doctor shrugged. "All good points. I've got theories, of course, but they all tend to the weirder side, even by my generous standards."

  Alice gulped. That which Dr. Wusiji considered weird warranted immediate attention. As Garamond teleported back to his human ally's side, nodding his completion of the task, she patted the monster on one shoulder and returned him to his capture capsule.

  "Well, consider me convinced. It's been some time since I've surveyed a new relic or discovery..." She was positively beaming now, in a way that some scared interns were noticing and hurrying past with unknowable expressions.

  She patted Amethyst's capture capsule. "How about it, precious friend? Think you've got a trip in you today?"

  The capsule vibrated as the monster inside burst with joy at being able to take to the winds yet again. Alice, for her part, was already on the move to an elevator that would take her to one of the platforms reserved for people to leave the Kongming High State building on flying monsters from.

  Some hours later, in the skies above the forests around Yongqi Town, Alice frowned down at the verdant lands beneath her. According to her GPS, she should be right on top of Ondun's phone locator signal. The doctor and she had called the adventurer, confirmed the find, and told him how to turn his phone's GPS locator on. He did that, and Alice frowned just a little bit harder.

  The man's photos indicated a clearing. There was none to be seen.

  Alice thought for a moment, then put a hand on one capture capsule on her waist, not to use it, but to have a conversation.

  Something is strange about this part of the land. Do you sense anything? Alice mentally asked. There was a brief pause as the monster inside the capsule pushed out with her powers.

  There is a power much like that of me and my kin that lies about this place, my Queen. There is an air of illusion here. Someone is concealing something.

  This power is...odd. It is old, but it is not organic. It is too orderly, too repetitive. It reminds me of the machines you humans seem to revere so.

  Alice nodded. She'd suspected something like this, but the description wasn't what she'd expected. Some Light mons, like the Faedart line that Sparkles is a part of, had illusionary abilities to bend and project light. Psychic monsters could create phantasmal illusions directly in a person's mind. This was something in between the two techniques.

  "Amethyst, I have an odd request. I don't think what we're seeing beneath us is entirely real. That's why I want you to descend slowly. I think some of those trees are real...but some are not."

  Amethyst grunted. "Gemragon!" she cried. Then, she began a slow, spiraling descent. Alice could pick out Ondun's voice as he shouted out, "I am here! You can come down; it's clear!"

  Amethyst picked up on this and slowly increased the angle of the descent. Eventually, just as she and Amethyst thought they were going to crash into the canopy of a particularly dense tree...the two flew clear through it, and the entire vista disappeared as if it had never actually been there in the first place.

  Instead, Alice beheld the otherworldly adventurer waving, as the Aquepup he had chosen was practicing buffeting a tree with pulses of water. When Amethyst completed her descent, she hopped off, patted her friend, and let her lie down as she approached the Draconian.

  "Huh, you taught him Aqua Pulse. I didn't think the Aquepup line learned that until they matured into an Aquahound."

  He raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure. I just showed Strudel the water jutsu I can use when I embody the Shinobi arts. As he's elementally attuned to water, I've been working on the techniques with him. He's actually very smart!"

  She nodded to the small canine, who stopped and tilted his head, then trotted up beside Ondun, who gave him an almost lazy pat. Alice noted that the small monster was friendly towards him and also somewhat protective. She put a hand to Garamond's capture capsule. I think this conversation calls for a man's touch, she thought. After feeling some dissent, she said, "I'm going to pull out one of my friends. He'll be able to help me talk to Strudel here."

  She activated the capture capsule, and the human-like silhouette of Garamond, one of her 'utility' monsters, appeared. He was of the same line as Mindy, only his base form tended to evolve based on biological sex into either the more 'feminine' Maidenpala or the more aggressive, 'masculine' Knightpala. He gave Alice a bow, then turned to Ondun...and froze.

  A mighty warrior greets me; I see one whose mind works in the ways of the fighting arts. Truly, blessed by my human friend—and Olympus—am I to meet such a distinguished warrior. Your thoughts are strangely clouded, though. Are you well, friend of my friend?

  Ondun struggled to answer that question, oddly enough. "I'm well enough," he settled on.

  Garamond and Alice exchanged a look before the woman continued. "While Garamond can work with Strudel here and talk to him about his experiences, I was hoping you could tell me more about this relic. You seem familiar with the creators."

  Ondun nodded. "They were called the Allemandians, and on my world, they dominated the Third Age. My first encounter with them was when my friend Kelse helped an expedition into the structure that used to be their capital, the Allemandian Tower..."

  Even as Ondun and Alice were examining the odd, alien structure, Garamond knelt next to Strudel.

  Your control of water is impressive, young one. I see your human is at least an able teacher.

  "He is," Strudel responded quietly. "He's seen much. As humans go, he's better than I was expecting."

  Garamond paused at that. "His thoughts are tainted with the strain of violence. This man has killed many, both monsters of his world and humans alike. His thoughts are...they are unpleasant to view."

  "I thought as much," Strudel said. "He told me of his adventures, of his friends. I do my best to support him, but...I fear he is struggling. He puts on a brave face, but finding that..." Strudel nodded to the gateway that Ondun was operating, as Alice watched and made suggestions, "...finding something of his home here affected him profoundly. At first he thought we were in danger. He swept it a few times to be sure it was safe."

  The knight paused. Then, my human friend is not in danger?

  The young canine monster shook his head. "No, she is not from the ruins or from Ondun. Believe it or not, Ondun is no brute. He can be brilliant. I didn't think I could focus a Water Pulse until I was much bigger. It is difficult for me, but as I grow, I believe it may grow easier."

  Garamond nodded approvingly. When you are grown larger, you will be a fearsome opponent indeed!

  Strudel paused. "To be honest...that's a future I fear. I think my human seeks happiness with his friends. The fighting...I think the bloodshed moves him further from that goal. He spaces out at times...he woke up today and needed to remember where he was...the way he looked at me for that moment honestly scared me."

  Garamond thought. Are you in danger, young one?

  Strudel thought. "I do not think so...but I think someone needs to help Ondun, and I think he needs to heal his friends. He worries greatly for me...but even more so for them."

  The knight paladin nodded. That is all I needed to know. I can advise my lady...and I think we can help you and your friend. Let me return to my lady's side, honorable hound. May Olympus watch over you.

  Garamond strode away from the puppy, who was looking at a pair of trees as if he was either thinking about how to climb them or efficiently pee on them, and gave Alice a mental nudge. She gave no signal in return, but he could feel the temperature of her thoughts cool with a brief breeze of what he knew to be relaxation.