Byron took another breath in. He had to ask questions. He had to comprehend and get it through his thick skull, this was not acid.

"If that-" he pointed at the reptile. "-is Baby. Just how freaking large are you two?"

The male voice answered now. -Much more than large, warrior. However, we grasped that your mind was already at a point where it might truly lose sanity if we revealed ourselves immediately.-

"Well," he chuckled heavily, almost cracking a rib. "Thank you very much, sir! That's very frigging considerate of you, what with everything that literally just happened before my very eyes."

The rattling in his brain and heart threatened to overwhelm him again. Byron turned to stare down at the leaves. He needed to find something to focus on that would at least make sense to him. When he finished having a moment, he straightened back up.

"So, define, 'much more than'. Are you close?"

-We are.-

He breathed in deeply, "How big are you?"

The female answered, -Look to your right, young warrior, but do not be alarmed, we will not harm you.-

He glanced in the direction she'd mentioned. Those mountains really did look like the Rockies, but it wasn't the same shape.

There was a massive hill in the way, trees beyond the hill, and all around. He was standing in a valley of sorts, a gigantic clearing covered in autumn leaves. Had to be half a mile wide.

A mammoth golden eye lifted open.

"Holy. Shit."

The hill he was standing next to was the lizard's skull. The eye was easily forty feet in diameter. A dragon's eye.

He fell against the scythe and started laughing. "Are you kidding me!? What?!"

-Rest your mind, young one.-- The eye of the female winked at him. -As I said, we will not harm you.-

He took in some more gasping breaths. Then he threw up a shaking hand. "Okay, sorry, sorry, but, yeah! So, clearly! Something just freaking happened."

-Indeed, you are hungry?- The male asked.

"Phew! Actually. Yes. I am." He shook his head.

Why was he hungry? Oh, right, adrenaline dump. He'd puked up back in the swamp. Right after he'd killed the vampire. God, that thing had smelt like rancid pus and vomit going down. Worse even than some of the bodies they found over there... oh wait, over there was back on Earth. Gaia.

-There should be something in the pocket of the cloak, warrior. Meat. I believe your species would call it 'jerky'?- the male spoke.

Byron reached into the cloak's pockets. shuffling through them with his fingers. Sure enough, something was in there. He pulled it out, sniffed it.

Meat of some kind. He nibbled.

Whatever it was, its consistency was more tender than beef, maybe a little similar to a deer's, but the taste wasn't the same. It didn't matter, the protein was really, really damn good. Even while it went down his throat, he felt he was getting steadier.

"What kind of meat is this?" he asked.

The male answered, -That meat is from a dragon. You need not worry, warrior, the cloak keeps such items in excellent condition. Though that dragon has been dead many, many years.-

He peered up in horror, holding up the jerky, "Wait, a dragon? Are you telling me I'm eating a piece of you?!"

The female answered. -No, young one. We are not dragons. We are wyrms.-

He closed his eyes, trying to think. Wyrms and dragons. These things were entirely different species. Literal creatures, no, presumed monsters, from folklore and myth.

Oh, the guys from the Dungeons and Dragons groups back overseas and homeside would've had a field day with this crap. If they hadn't completely gone off the deep end after that shock.

"Wyrms. Dragons. Okay, different species again..."

The female blinked at him, her mental tone approving. -Very good, young one. What is your name?-

Inside that massive golden eye, he could've sworn he saw stars swirling in its black void of a pupil. He refocused. No, it wasn't a trick of the light. The wyrm had literal stars coalescing in its pupils. As though it were a projection of some sort.

He blinked. "B... Byron. Byron Dekker."

-Byron Dekker. You are in shock.- the female said.

"You think, ma'am?" he gritted.

Then he remembered he was smart-mouthing a creature that could've taken on Godzilla. "Sorry, ma'am, sorry, but... yeah, I am."

The male wyrm now opened its eye, directly to his left. He was a smidge less surprised to see how vast it was. -We apologize, warrior, but your dieumort recognized your soul and brought you here when you felt threatened.-

"Dieumort?" he squinted.

-Indeed.-

"Wait..." he held up the scythe. "You're talking about this scythe?"

The soothing female wyrm spoke again, -Yes, the scythe is a dieumort, Byron.-

"Dieumort..." That guy - demon - had said that word earlier. He let his mind catch up. "That. That's Latin. Dieu is God. Mort, oh, that's..."

-Death, warrior.- The male interjected.

"What? Wait, pause!" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Timeout! Give me some seconds to process."

He thought to himself, God Death. God's Death? No, this was unbelievable, but he asked anyway, "You're both telling me that I am holding a weapon, a scythe, that can kill God?"

The male wyrm answered. -In this case, it is plural, Dekker. That scythe can kill gods. Gods or goddesses. Immortals or primordials. There are many such entities throughout the realms and universe. Tens of billions, in fact.-

Byron turned the handle over in his hand to look at the blade. Razor sharp on both sides. Black and deep grey. Ancient. That explained why the shaft felt like petrified wood. Wait... it wasn't anymore. The wood had begun to soften? Come back to life?

His mind went through what he'd overheard back in the swamp. Dieumort. A god-killer. That one demon... Jesus, it was true, there were such things as 'good' demons? He shook his head.

Supernatural, eat your freaking heart out, Crowley!

That demon had had a slightly English accent, too. Freaking gigantic man - wait, not a man, a demon. He'd clipped out English like he was educated from some mansion back in Great Britain. Or somewhere in the colonies.

What was that demon's name? Rydstrom? He said that dieumort was an arrow? And this was a scythe? A permanent handheld, god-killing weapon?

That brought him up short.

He held a freaking thermonuclear bomb that those creatures - vampires, centaurs, snakes, werewolves, demons, Valkyries - had been slicing each other's heads off. Just to get hold of one.

He licked his lips nervously. Put it in your terms, Dekker...

He went over it from his perspective when he'd served. If that added up, that entire chaotic, vicious battle he'd witnessed and haphazardly been a part of...

Ultimately, it was a seize, secure and extract mission of a high value target. The only difference was the mythic proportions.

Byron examined the creatures before him. Even with this scythe's blade, he doubted he could swing through their hides. They could've ended him with a single paw. Hell, their Baby was a rhinoceros-sized creature that could have killed him at the first instant.

He breathed in, chewing. The dragon jerky tasted even better. His stomach settled.

Somehow, the scythe had realized he was in trouble, and it transported him here when that female Valkyrie had been about to strike. But she'd moved so fast before. He'd barely noticed her arm flick to dispatch that vampire and those demons.

Just had to check. "I think I got attacked. Female was about to swing a blade at me. Are you both absolutely certain I am not dead?"

The male blinked a moment, then answered, -We are certain. You are becoming immortal. You are the first of your kind that we have seen in eons.-

He stammered, "Eons... literal eons?"

-Yes.-

"Like, tens of thousands of mortal human years?"

The female gently chuffed air over her lips, -That is correct, Byron.-

He pushed the scythe into the ground blade-first to keep the edge away from him. His ass hit the ground with a thump while he sat Indian-style. Do not freak out, Dekker. Oh wait, I already did.

"Father God." He kept his eyes closed. "Help me."

The male wyrm's voice had gone from its prior disciplining tone to one of curiosity, -Warrior, you are praying?-

He nodded fiercely. "Sir, yessir. Praying very hard right about now."

The female wyrm was whispering in his mind. -You have traveled a very far distance in a very short time, it is understandable. We will not harm you, however. We can help guide you.-

Something about that voice was lulling, soothing. It reminded him of his grandmother's voice, comforting. Before she'd passed from cancer. Byron worked his jaw a few times.

He'd survived. The shock of being portaled. That woman... Valkyrie. Nїx, they called her.

God in Heaven, she was beyond beautiful. The others had been bombshells, too, but damned if they weren't all hooked up and married with some gnarly big-ass boys from 'round the way!

Boys... demons, werewolves and vampires. Girls... Valkyries and vampiress. He grunted at the absurdity. Married? Mated?

The look on that Valkyrie's face when she'd been about to strike. Byron centered her image in his mind's eye. He was not dead, the wyrms weren't killing him. Whatever had happened, he needed to juice up quick. If a crazy beautiful girl like that could survive, he had to.

He opened his eyes. "Okay. Ma'am? Sir? Mr. and Mrs. Wyrm? Uh, do y'all have names?"

-You may call me Fridha, Byron.-

"Fridha?"

The female blinked her eye.

Byron looked over at the male's eye. "Sir, your name?"

-Harald is what you may call me. Our mental language is far deeper and more complex than yours, but we use your own Earth languages for simplicity's sake.-

He sighed. "Well, thank you, Harald, sir. But now I need to ask you. Tell me everything. Let's start with what I just saw back on my home."

The massive female wyrm's head canted slowly to stare at him with focus through its eye. -Home?-

"Earth."