The warp only lasted for a second, unlike the first time, when being summoned to Tertius felt like forever. As soon as Ryan came out of the warp, he felt the familiar dizziness. He took a deep breath as sweat dripped down his forehead.

"I feel like I've been hit by a truck," Ryan said with a groan.

"Me too," Hiro agreed as he coughed up blood.

"What happened? Where are we?" Ryan asked.

"I used my teleport magic that the Goddess gave me," Hiro said with a weak smile. "But I don't know where we are."

"You had teleportation magic? Why in the hell didn't you use... it earlier... Hiro?" Ryan said with a confused look when he noticed Hiro looking extremely ill.

He looked at Ryan with a sad smile as he collapsed to the ground like a marionette string getting cut.

"HIRO!?" Ryan screamed as he reached out to Hiro and grabbed him before he could hit the ground.

"Looks like it's time for me to go back to Japan, *Cough*," Hiro said in a low voice as his eyes, skin, and hair turned pure white in a matter of seconds.

"NO! You're just fucking with me! Like you always do! Right!?" Ryan yells as he tries desperately to keep Hiro's body warm and is desperately trying to figure out what is happening to his body.

"I'm.... sorry... about... Ah!... I'm so c-cold... I'm..... so....." Hiro stopped breathing, and his face was already becoming deathly pale.

"HIRO!? DON'T YOU FUCKING DO THIS TO ME!!!" Ryan screams as he lays a shivering Hiro down to the ground and hugs the side of Hiro's head to Ryan's chest as tears start rolling down his cheeks.

"No! It's alright, Hiro!! Y-You'll be fine! I-I'll find a way to save you! J-Just rest... Okay? Just-" Ryan tries to comfort Hiro as best as he can while feeling the warmth leave Hiro as he turns stone-cold.

"..."

"Hck!"

"..."

Ryan cries as he holds Hiro's lifeless body in his hands. After a while, he stares at his fallen comrade with a look of confusion and mourning. Before Ryan knew what to do, Hiro's body slowly starts to turn into dust.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Ryan says while he desperately tries to hold together the now crumbling body as best as he can. But no matter how hard Ryan tried to prevent it, the dust fell in between his fingers as the last remnants of Hiro's body disintegrated away into nothing but dust on the ground.

'For all of his annoying faults... For all his bullshit... Hiro sacrificed himself to save me?.... And I failed him... No one deserves to die like this...' His vision blurred with tears.

"..."

"Why?... Why did this happen?" Ryan whimpers as he struggles to hold Hiro's body, as there is nothing left but the red crystal orb from his necklace.

"Hck."

"Hck, hck, hck!" Ryan can no longer hold back the sorrow that is overwhelming him as he cries for his fallen comrade. After a moment of grieving, he wiped away his tears as best as he could and stood up. He knows he can't stay around too long; otherwise, he'll be joining Hiro in the afterlife if he's not careful.

*sniff* "Goodbye, Hiro." Ryan sighed as he regathered himself.

"..."

"That's what happens from mana exhaustion." An airy voice inside Ryan's mind snapped him out of his state of mourning as he focused on his surroundings for the first time. That's when he realized he was in a dense forest in the middle of nowhere.

"That voice!? Nils!?" Ryan yelled as he looked around until he saw the shadow figure of a woman standing next to him.

"Good, you remember me." Said the goddess as she smiled at him.

"Wipe that smile off your face. You did that to Hiro, didn't you?" Ryan said as he glared at her.

"I did nothing of the sort." She says as she tuts. "He might have survived if he was capable of absorbing that Basilisk's mana. But he was just another summoned failure."

"That's bullshit!" Ryan yelled in anger. "You're a failure! You summoned us! And for what!? Just to die!?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"We're still going to need you," Nils said in a calm voice.

"What? If you needed us, then why did you put us in this situation!? Screw that! Why did you choose us out of everyone on my planet?" Ryan demanded as he glared at her.

"Well, after everything you've gone through. You've earned the right to know, but I'll bring my sister into our conversation now that her chosen one has perished. You'll be her replacement." Nils said.

"Huh?" Just as Ryan was going to ask her what she was talking about, the red orb, which used to be Hiro's necklace, glowed brighter as it came to life. It flew towards Ryan's orb and merged into it, making the orb slightly bigger.

This happened so fast that Ryan couldn't react. If he could see his orb now, it looked like a yin-yang with red and gold instead of black and white.

"What did you do!?" Ryan panicked.

"Giving me a chance to introduce myself." All of a sudden, another shadowy figure materializes out of nowhere. She looked almost identical to Nils except for her being red and had shorter hair.

Ryan gulped hard, knowing he had to deal with another goddess.

"I'm The Goddess of Time and Space, Nebulus." Said the red goddess with a smile.