Shortly after Harcone arrived at Duke Lucas’ mansion.

  The Abyssal Woods – Northern side, near Arabors Tomb.

  Me and Avy had left Ordial shortly after witnessing that strange creature fly over our heads in Ordial. For some reason, Avy had insisted that we have to get out of town for now and go out into the forest – when she told me that, I was slightly confused at first, however I did manage to notice an ever so slight hint of…. Nervousness, written across her face. As if she was worried about something.

  I had thought about asking her whether everything was alright, however, with the way she was acting - I decided to hold my tongue and just go along with her. “Perhaps whatever that Knight on that flying thing was, made her nervous?” I thought, rubbing the back of my neck. She had dragged me towards the north side of the Abyssal Woods that surrounded Ordial. If I wasn't mistaken, this was the side of these woods where I first awakened before running into Arabors Tomb – where I met the dragon.

  It had been a long time since I was in these parts, if they were the same ones. Over a month, and yet, everything still looked the sameish. Kind of overgrown - like nature had no restrictions on simply just spreading all around the place.

  Moving through the thick vegetation of the forest, Avy moved significantly faster than me — whereas I struggled a bit to not have my entire body get tangled in the greenery. “It's a lot tougher to move through this thick forest with a human body… But I can’t exactly go into my true form because then Avy will lose sight of me fast.” I exhaled gently, before pushing through some bushes.

  “Uh– Avy? Could you maybe slow down a bit?”

  The owl girl looked back at me, with a rather… disinterested gaze – let’s put it like that. “Huh? Come on, surely my saviour has no trouble moving through a slightly overgrown forest range?”

  “It’s not that I have trouble—” I tripped a bit, tumbling forward slightly, before catching my balance and preventing a faceplant straight into the grass. Exhaling, I looked at Avy. “It’s that you’re rather fast. I don’t have talons like you.”

  Avy rolled her eyes, turning away and continuing to move forward. I sighed once again, before carefully treading after her – making sure to watch my step, so that I didn’t trip again. It wouldn’t be fun to find out what dirt tastes like. The two of us moved further and further into the forest, the terrain becoming more and more difficult to traverse before we finally reached a small opening – one where there were some boulders nearby, a bit of singed grass…. Wait, this looked familiar.

  “Isn’t this… where the sixtails chased me to?” I looked around.

  Though it was hard to tell due to the thick vegetation that had appeared since that time, it most likely was indeed the very same location where I chased to by the sixtails, before she was killed by… whoever that strange man was. Avy moved over to the nearby boulders, hopping onto one of them before stretching out.

  I looked at her with a slight sweat.

  This place was certainly deep, deep inside the Abyssal Woods – but why did she drag them both out here? I threw a look around where the sixtails and the man had their confrontation. The corpse of the girl was gone - and seemingly for a while now. “No surprises there I suppose… It has been over a month since that happened now.”

  Walking over to the approximate spot where the body had rested, I could almost recall the images of the entire thing in my mind.

  I was so terrified back then — terrified of dying, terrified of being seen… Terrified of witnessing someone be killed. Sure, I had killed monsters – but it’s one thing to kill a monster that acts out on just instincts, it is an entirely different thing to kill someone who is so close to being basically a human…. Minus the animal features that the girl possessed.

  Kneeling down, I touched the ground gently.

  The grass felt slightly stiff in a certain spot compared to the rest of it around. “This must have been the spot her body was laying after dying… Guess some things remain even after a while.” I exhaled again.

  “Something wrong? Come on, come join me on the boulder for a rest.” Avy suddenly called out from behind. I took in a deep breath, before standing up and throwing an unimpressed gaze at the woman on the boulders – her feet kicked up, back pressed against a different boulder behind her and her arms behind her head. She looked very relaxed. “You know, you still haven’t told me exactly why we’re this deep in the forest. It’s not fun being left in the dark.” I crossed my arms, walking over to her. Avy avoided by gaze, looking away.

  Narrowing my gaze, I sighed, sitting down next to her, however not leaning my back against the boulder like her — instead, leaning forward a bit, resting my arms on my knees, before throwing a gaze at her over my right shoulder. “Is it about that Knight? After witnessing him arriving to Ordial, you’ve been acting even stranger than usual.”

  “Huuuh?” She looked at me, annoyed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Just answer my question will you?”

  Avy fell silent again, looking away once more. This was basically silent confirmation that I was right — it is about that Knight. The only question was, what about the Knight made her drag him out this deep in the forest? Maybe trying to avoid running into the Knight? I mean… it would make sense.

  Being the daughter of this ‘Owl Empress’ most likely meant she was a big deal.

  Avy exhaled, turning away, before looking up at the sky that shone through the treeline above us. “It’s just… well…” She stuttered a bit, before looking at me over her right shoulder. “...Do you not know who that was?”

  I looked around before chuckling, rubbing the back of my neck.

  “Am I supposed to?”

  She looked at me unimpressed, before sighing and looking away, swaying her legs a bit back and forth. “If I am not mistaken, he’s a member of the Holy Night Order. It’s an organisation run by one of the Primal Dragons, specifically, the dragon of energy. In the past, he was a close acquaintance of my mother and… Well, I suspect that he must have caught wind of the beast my mother created being killed.”

  “Not possible. I was all alone against it and no one else was nearby to see me kill it.”

  Avy laughed to herself gently, before lifting her legs up onto the boulder, hugging them tightly. “Trust me… Stuff like this doesn’t go unnoticed in a world governed by gods that shaped the world. The death of the beast my mother created was most certainly noticed by him.”

  “So she’s afraid that he found out? But… Why?”

  From what I remember about the Primal Dragons from Arabor, they were the ones who shaped the land and established its rules. Essentially they were gods of this world, and if Arabor was a basis to go off of, I don’t think any of the dragons would have ill will…

  “Why are you afraid of him finding out?”

  Avy remained quiet for a bit, before sighing and shuffling over to my side, before laying down and resting her head onto my lap – which surprised me for a moment. Then, she moved her body a bit, her head looking up at me. “I have a bad feeling about it. I feel like if he finds out, he’ll inform my mother and… well…” She closed her eyes for a second, before looking away into the forest. “...I’m scared that she’ll come looking for me and you, just to judge you.”

  …I won’t lie, I failed to see the problem.

  Perhaps I simply was too inexperienced… But I simply couldn’t see the problem in the Primal Dragon of energy finding out about her being freed or the beast created to protect her seal being slain.

  Maybe she didn’t have a good relationship with her mother?

  From how she’s spoken about her mother before, especially with the tone she’s done it with, it was the most logical conclusion – that perhaps she had some sort of… issues or complications in her relationship with her mother. Mommy issues - so to speak.

  I wanted to ask her to be more specific, however seeing how she was right now…

  I decided that maybe it was better to forget about it entirely. Sighing, I gently touched her forehead, patting it a bit. Avy blushed, looking back over at me.

  “Don’t worry, if you’re that worried about it – we can simply avoid going into town for a few days. Until that Knight leaves.” I looked down at her, smiling lightly. Avy stared up at me with a surprised expression, before extending her arms out towards me, a bright and brimming smile across her face.

  “Awwwh, come here, let me give you a sweet smooch!”

  “Not happening.”

  “Hmph…”

  The two of us remained on the boulder like that for a little while, until eventually Avy complained about being hungry. I stretched out after climbing off of the boulder, before quickly forming a spear out of venom, kicking its base a bit and spinning it for a moment, before resting it onto my right shoulder.

  Might as well use this as an excuse to increase my level a bit more. Though when he first travelled through here, the monsters here weren’t the strongest — he should be able to run into some strong ones like Troll or the Sixtails from back then. At his current level of strength, he should be strong enough to not have any struggles when dealing with monsters of that level.

  And so, we wandered back into the forest – Avy sticking to my side like glue, while I kept my eyes peeled wide open, and ‘Enlightened’ on high alert. I wanted to make sure I don’t miss any movement around me - no matter how subtle.

  And it didn’t take too long before we found something that would make a fine meal for us.

  Rustle, rustle…

  A large pack of boars blasted through bushes, trampling all sorts of small bugs and vegetation in their path as they rushed through. Behind them, I and Avy chased after them – keeping an even pace. “These are new monsters. When I was first travelling through here, I didn’t encounter monsters like this.”

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Name; N/A

  Species; Greater Direboar

  Level; 30

  A more evolved version of the Wildboars found sometimes in the forest. Though they possess little to no intelligence, they have extraordinary coordination skills and usually traverse in packs – making them a rather big threat, as anyone encountering them risks being overwhelmed by their numbers.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  “These boars will make for such delicious food!” Avy commented out loud, her eyes basically shining all the while she was basically drooling from the very idea of cooking the Direboars. I couldn’t help but just roll my eyes and exhale at her excitement of eating the boars, before leaping up into the treeline, hopping through it for a bit, before spinning my venom spear around and tossing it over in front of the boars.

  The spear exploded into a puddle of acidic venom, blocking off the boars as they all slowed down and turned to the side, about to rush off to a different path. “Oh no you don’t!” Avy shouted, her talons growing out longer, before she leapt forward and in a few swift moves and slashes — killed the entire boar pack, leaving none of them standing.

  I leapt out of the treeline, landing down onto the ground before exhaling.

  Experience threshold has been reached.

  You have risen to level 101.

  “Hey, at least even those killed by Avy give me experience…” I walked over to Avy, who was already piling up the boar pack into a large pile, her eyes sparkling the entire time. “So, ready to cook them up?”

  “Absolutely!” She flipped around to face me, excitement plastered across her entire face. It was almost frightening how excited she was to eat some boar meat…

  After settling down and throwing together a quick spot for a campfire, Avy used a bit of magic to create a small fire spark, igniting the campfire. With ‘Shadowlord’ I managed to use the shadows around us to create a sort of rest upon which to lay the boars, which we carefully did — of course, only after Avy had thoroughly shredded it down to actually a viable size.

  And y’know – removed the inedible parts.

  As I monster myself, I didn’t need to worry about the potential drawbacks of eating monster meat, since I was supposedly immune to them, however Avy isn't a monster. She’s closer to a human than me, so she is unable to eat all of the parts of a monster safely. Gotta say though – I did find it a bit strange how the daughter of what must be a fairly powerful being, is still at risk of suffering negative effects when eating certain monster parts and meat.

  Suppose even the higher beings of this world have their limits.

  The two of us rested at the fire for a few hours, with Avy just devouring one boar after another, leaving me to either pick off the parts she couldn’t consume or to hand them to Arvalor, who was resting in my shadow. I’d just toss it into the shadow for him to eat — I know it sounds weird, that a Shadow Beast can eat, but hey — I am a snake in a world of magic and what not.

  Is it really worth questioning everything in this world?

  “By the way…” Avy suddenly spoke up. I looked at her, tossing another monster part to Arvalor in the shadows. “What’s up?”

  “That.” She pointed at the shadow where Arvalor was inside of.

  “What in the name of the Dragons is that thing that is constantly tailing you in your shadow and when were you planning to introduce me to it?”

  I chuckled gently. “Guess I hadn’t told her about Arvalor yet… In my defence, it is better to keep him a secret, as I don’t think commanding something like a Shadow Beast is necessarily a common thing.”

  I shed a slight sweat, before exhaling and tapping the ground gently with my right foot. “Come on out, Arvalor. She’s a friend.”

  The Shadow Beasts eyes shone from the shadow at first, its gaze falling onto Avy for a moment. Then, the shadows moved up, distorting and morphing in all manner of ways, before Arvalor rose out of them, forming its body together before standing to my left side, gently growling as it eyed Avy with its three heads. I patted it gently on the goat head. “Easy there Arvalor – she’s not an enemy.”

  Avy looked a bit impressed, even surprised to see Arvalor.

  “Oooh?～ You can command a Shadow Beast? That’s rather impressive… These things don’t just follow whoever. They’re rather difficult to even get to appear.”

  “Are they…?” I laughed lightly before rubbing the back of my neck and looking away to the side. “Better keep the fact that I technically created this Shadow Beast using my skill then… Who knows — An ability like that might just be one of a kind.” Exhaling, I gently petted Arvalor, who got in comfort, laying down behind me – its eyes still fixated on Avy for a moment, before it closed them. “Arvalor is like a companion to me. Though, I only really use him when absolutely necessary… or when he decides to leap out of my shadow to defend me.”

  “Interesting… So it’s like having a bodyguard with you at all times.”

  Avy commented, cleaning off her mouth from the boar meat residue, before licking her fingers and then eyeing Arvalor for a bit once more, chuckling afterwards, stretching out. “Well, nice to know that my fiancé has more tricks up his sleeves than he leads on.”

  “I told you not to call me that…”

  I exhaled gently, before looking down at the crackling fire of the campfire for a moment, moving my gaze up at the sky above us afterwards. It was already dark…

  It probably wasn’t a good idea to stay out in the open overnight.

  I stood up, brushing off my clothes. “How about we find some sort of shelter for the night? It’d be a lot safer to sleep somewhere where we’re harder to spot than out in the open.”

  “Hmmm?～ Are you concerned about some weak monsters getting the jump on us?～”

  “Nothing wrong with taking a little precautions for the purposes of safety.”

  Avy sighed, getting up as well, before brushing off her clothing. “Alright, alright～ Let’s go find a spot to spend the night in then.” I nodded, before gently touching Arvalor and sending him back into my shadow. Then, with a swift use of ‘Shadowlord’, I extinguished the campfire, before looking at Avy. “Let’s move then—”

  Rustle, rustle…

  The two of us froze.

  In an instant, I formed my venom spear while Avy extended her talons out.

  Something had moved to our left just now. I exchanged gazes with Avy, before slowly walking towards where the sound had come from. I felt a cold shiver running down my spine – something felt off. It didn’t feel like there was a strong monster or something like that nearby… No, instead, it felt like something… foul was nearby.

  The two of us carefully moved through the bushes and trees, keeping our eyes wide open. I also extended the range of my ‘Enlightened’ skills subskill ‘Overworld Detection’, just to see whether I was able to pick up on what could have made that sound we heard just now. For a bit – nothing. Not even a sign of life.

  I already started to think the two of us were going crazy.

  But then—

  Ping.

  “Hold on.” I stopped, gesturing to Avy to stop as well.

  “I sense something… There’s… someone nearby.” I focused on the picked upon presence a bit more. For a moment, I was only able to sense the presence of a single individual, however, in just a few seconds, I managed to make out an entire group of them. About… I’d say thirty in numbers.

  Each one had a different amount of magical energy inside their bodies.

  However, there was one presence that stood out amongst the group – a much, much more powerful magical energy presence in the center of the group. “Well? Whatcha got to share?”

  “I can sense about thirty different individuals, each one with a different amount of magical energy within them, but…”

  Avy raised an eyebrow. “Buuut?”

  “There’s one in the middle. One with a much, much higher amount of magical energy than the rest of the group. That individual stands out like a sore thumb in their group.” I looked at her. Avy looked rather interested, chuckling to herself a bit deviously. “Ohoho～ What do you say? Should we head over and investigate?”

  “I… I’m not sure…” Though I didn’t doubt our skills in a fight, should it break out between us and that group — especially with how strong Avy is — I didn’t want to take a risk by facing an entire group of them. I mean, thirty people - even if Avy was quite strong, surely she wasn’t able to just take on thirty people at once without any trouble… Right?

  I thought about it for a moment, Avy simply staring at me.

  Then, after an exhale, I spun my spear around. “Alright. Suppose there’s no harm in investigating.”

  “Hehehe～ I knew you’d agree～”

  “However, avoid engaging in a confrontation. We don’t know how powerful the members of this group are. We don’t want a situation where we have to face thirty different individuals head on.” Avy pouted slightly, seemingly disappointed by this decision, however, after a sigh, she looked away.

  “Alright, alright — avoid a confrontation. Got it.”

  She then mumbled something under her breath — something I just barely managed to pick up on with ‘Overworld Detection’. “...Not like any of them could actually pose a challenge to me.”

  I sighed, before gesturing to her to follow after me.

  “Come on – let’s not lose them.” Avy nodded, before moving swiftly through the forest, tailing after the group, more specifically, tracking them down using their magical energy which I was still able to pick up on. “They’re moving fast…”

  I commented in my mind. Whoever we were chasing after, most certainly was going to be either sketchy and shady or maybe some sort of adventurer party on a quest… Though, a thirty person adventurer party sounded a bit… insane.

  So maybe not the latter.

  It wasn’t long then, when we managed to catch up to the group, spotting them with shining orbs, which were used as a source of light, gathered around what looked to be an entrance to something. It looked like some sort of basement door – just, made out of stone, instead of wood. Most of the people in the group were hidden under dark cloaks, which had red accents around them with a strange symbol on their backs.

  A hand silhouette, with a… bleeding eye in the middle?

  It looked rather ominous. The strangest part however, was the individual who had significantly more magical energy than the group…

  In the middle, tied up and seemingly unconscious, was a… little girl. But, not an ordinary little girl. While her top half looked very much human, minus her long ears, a pair of what looked to be horns and scales on her cheeks, her bottom half was… a snake tail.

  “Is that a lamia?... No, she’s not nearly strong enough to be a lamia… maybe a Gorgan?” Avy commented to herself. I threw a gaze over at her. “You know what that little girl is?”

  “Perhaps… Before I was placed in that seal, I used to hang out with a half snake boy a lot. He was part of a species known as ‘lamias’ – humanoid beings, that tread a thin, fine line between being ‘humanoid’ and ‘monster’.”

  “But you said just now that the girl couldn’t be a lamia…”

  “Yeah, she’s not nearly strong enough. Lamias have a high density of magical energy inside them – so much that it starts to leak through their eyes, causing a strong petrifying effect to be cast out against their will, which forces lamias to constantly keep their eyes closed and most of the time, covered by something.” Avy explained, before looking back at the girl. “She’s most likely a gorgan. An inferior species to the lamias. Gorgans still possess extraordinary magical energy, even at a young age, however unlike lamias, their magical energy is a lot more stable and under control. In fact, gorgans are known for having some of the most stable magical energy in the world… If I remember correctly, a lot of magic researchers back in the day would have gorgans as their assistants, because the gorgans could serve as an external catalyst to construct spells.”

  An external catalyst to construct spells…?

  Sounds a bit like people were exploiting the natural advantages of the Gorgan kind to get what they wanted….

  I looked back at the group, who had just begun to descend down through the stone doors. “What could these cloaked individuals want with that gorgan child then…”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Most likely they plan to use her as a catalyst for some sort of ritual.”

  “But wouldn’t it make more sense to capture a mature gorgan for that purpose then?”

  Avy laughed, looking at me.

  “What is easier to catch — an adult with the will and power to fight back or a child that is most of the time focused on simply enjoying life and playing with other children?”

  …Fair point.

  They most likely targeted the child because she was easier to get their hands on. I shed a sweat, before exhaling. “Should we help?” Avy looked a bit surprised by this question. “Are you considering not helping?”

  “It’s not that I don’t want to, but… There’s no saying what we’ll find in there.”

  “True…” Avy looked at the doors, which were closed right after the final member of the group descended through them. With the forest returning to a state of pitch black darkness, silence took place again. Just mine and Avy’s subtle movements and breathing broke the silence. Avy simply stared at the door for a moment, before exhaling and standing up.

  “Ah, screw it.” She looked at me with a smile.

  “Let’s just go and rescue that child, alright? It’ll be more entertaining than just wandering the forest anyway. Plus…” She looked away. “I’ll be able to sleep easier tonight if I knew that the child was safe….”

  I stared at her for a moment, before looking at the doors. After a bit of pondering, I sighed and stood up as well, spinning my spear. “Oh what the hell – let’s go then. May as well have a bit of fun.” Avy looked at me and gave me a wide, cheerful smile. I returned a smile to her, before the two of us leapt down from the tree line, and made our way to the doors.

  “Besides… This may prove to be a good way to level up and grow a bit stronger.”

  Moving up to the doors, I knelt down, touching them.

  The doors looked kind of like stone doors, based on the texture and colour alone, however upon feeling them with my own hands – I could for sure tell that they were not made from stone at all. Maybe some sort of metal alloy, but not stone. “Well? Are they locked or?”

  “Ah– Right, sorry, I’ll check right away.”

  Pressing my right hand firmly on the doors, I closed my eyes, allowing ‘Enlightened’ to do its job and analyse them, to see whether the doors hid any special mechanism or something along those lines. For a moment or two, nothing — not any energy, not any suspicious mechanisms, nothing. Then, I let go of the doors and stood up. “I don’t sense any special mechanisms behind them. They just seem like ordinary… well, semi-ordinary doors.”

  Avy looked at them with a sketched out gaze, before sighing. “Alright, then let’s get them open and move in.” I smiled gently, before stepping forth, pushing her to the side a bit. “Then, if you’ll excuse me…”

  Avy moved out of the way, while I took in a deep breath. Then, with a flick of my hand, I manipulated the shadows around to grasp around the doors, both from the outside and inside. “Thankfully I have practiced enough with this skill, that I no longer need to see a shadow to be able to manipulate it. As long as I can sense it with ‘Enlightened’, that’s good enough for me!” Then, with one move of his hand, flicking it upwards into the air, the shadows around the doors broke the doors open, sending the two halves flying up into the air.

  Before they could crash down and create a loud bang, I quickly pulverised them into dust with the shadows around, before exhaling and looking down inside the place that was hidden behind the doors. “Not bad. Then again, that should be expected of my chosen one.”

  “Yeah, yeah…” I replied disinterested.

  Avy looked down into the doorway as well. A long staircase led down underground, dimly lit by torches. “So, do we descend?”

  “Hold on, before we do, it’ll be better if we’re unable to be detected.” Avy said, before placing her hand onto my shoulder and closing her eyes. For a moment, she stood there silently, before opening her eyes — the eyes shining brightly with a white colour. “Conceal.”

  Then, a white glow shone over our bodies. I looked down at my arms. My body looked slightly… transparent. “What was that?”

  “A concealing spell.” Avy replied, removing her hand from my shoulder, while her eyes returned back to normal. I raised an eyebrow. “But I thought you could only use magic? Doesn’t that require an incantation for a spell?”

  “You’re only questioning it now?”

  “I only now really focused on what you’re doing. Before I sort of just assumed you were mumbling incantations quietly under your breath.”

  “I’ll explain what it was later. Let’s just move.” She brushed me off, descending down the staircase. I remained in place for a moment or two, before letting loose a quick sigh and then quickly moving after Avy.

  The staircase was rather long, however it didn’t take all that long to reach the end. We entered into a small hallway, at the end of which was a door — but this one was different to the ones I’ve seen in Ordial or the stone, very ‘fantasy’ like doors that were concealing the staircase. The door looked…. Almost modern. In fact, the entire hallway looked nothing like I had seen before in this world. The floor was made from a very smoothed out rock, the walls were placed in with bricks, which were then painted a greyish white colour and lanterns hung from the ceiling.

  It was such a one eighty when compared to the staircase which was pretty primitive looking, and lit up by torches. “Why does this also feel a bit like some sort of modern facility from my world…? Almost like a hospital, just slightly more rough…”

  Without saying anything, Avy moved down the hallway, catching me off guard as I was forced to run after her to keep up with her. Walking up to the door, I leaned against it gently, placing my left hand onto them and closing my eyes. For a bit, I remained silent, simply concentrating.

  “Well? Sense anything?”

  “Yeah. They’re definitely through here. It feels like a large room, with them all mostly gathered around the middle of it.”

  “Then let’s move in – but remember, just because they can’t see us or detect our magical energy, doesn’t mean they can’t see us interacting with objects.”

  “Right.”

  I carefully placed my hand on the handle, about to push the door open before stopping and backing up a bit. Avy looked confused. “What are you doing? Come on—”

  “I’ve got a better idea. Hold onto me.” Avy looked rather flustered by the request for a second, before exhaling and moving closer to me, gripping onto me. Then, I took in a deep breath, closing my eyes, before moving my head down towards our shadows. “I haven’t done this with more than one person before… Let’s hope that it’s not too difficult.”

  “Hold on tight.”

  “..Right.”

  I focused on the shadows below us. The shadows distorted and morphed for a moment, before the two of us sunk into them, entering the shadow world. Avy looked around in surprise, slightly lost for words. Once we were inside, Arvalor looked excited to see me, however I gestured to the Shadow Beast to remain in the shadow world, before carefully moving forward with Avy, moving to where should be the other side of the door.

  Then, we carefully exited the shadow world, coming up out of some shadows right next to the door – now inside the large room. Avy let go of me, looking around. “That was…. H-Hold on now, you can access the realm of silhouettes?!”

  “Shh– keep your voice down.” I shushed her, before carefully looking around. We were on top of an elevated platform. There were railings to my left, over which I could see the rest of the room. The room was absolutely enormous and spacious. The walls were made using all sorts of different materials with paint then being placed over them. On the ceiling, was a large crest drawn in a bright red paint – the crest, being the same one as the cloaked figures had on their cloaks.

  Down at the bottom of the room, I could spot several boxes and other doors lined up against the walls — however those were not as eye-catching as the main event in the center of the room. The gorgan child was laying in the middle of what looked like some sort of ritualistic circle, drawn onto the ground, with all the cloaked figures gathered around her, all quietly looking at her with their heads pointed down.

  “Looks like we arrived right before they started their ritual.” I commented, with Avy looking over at them all as well. Examining the ritual circle a bit closer, I tried to analyse it with ‘Enlightened’ — however, instead I got an error message echoing in my head.

  Analysis failed.

  Contact with the circle required to create a reliable analysis.

  “For the love of…” I sighed. Then I threw my gaze over at Avy. “We have to get closer. I want to hear what they’re doing.”

  “Right.” Avy simply responded before the two of us together moved to the staircase that led down to the bottom of the large room. Once at the bottom, we quickly took cover behind a pile of boxes and crates – even though the ‘Conceal’ spell Avy cast on the two of us was most certainly strong enough to make it basically impossible to spot us, it was better to take some precautions, just in case.

  “Let’s watch for a bit what they’re going to do. I don’t want us to rush in.”

  “Of course – better first see what they’re planning.” Avy agreed, before our attention was caught by a door opening. One of the doors in the cylindrical wall of the room was wide open, through it, three more cloaked figures stepping through – only these ones looked a bit different, with their cloaks being a bright red colour, compared to the ones already gathered around the gorgan child in the center, who had a darkish colour – one that was closer to black. The gathered cloaked individuals made some space for the newly arrived ones, who then lifted their heads up a bit, looking at the gorgan child and then taking off their hoods – revealing three different faces.

  The one in the center was a pale faced man, with short hair, wolf ears and a scar that went across his eyes. The one to the left of the pale man was a female, with short black hair and a horn on her forehead. The one to the right of the man was a male, with rather long hair, which was caught into an upper ponytail – he didn’t have any differentiating characteristics on him that I could spot, which likely meant he was a regular human.

  As for the other two – the one in the middle was probably some sort of beastman or something, maybe a species similar to Iyka, while the female… honestly, I had no guesses to make on what she could potentially be.

  The center man turned to the female with the horn, taking a knife from her before slicing his palm open and then dripping the blood from his hand onto the ritual circle. The dark cloaked individuals around then lowered their heads, placing their arms together before swaying gently from left to right, chanting something.

  Finally, the man spoke.

  “We call upon the spirits of the underworld – heed our words and answer our prayers. Come forth to the waking world and enter a pact with us. We offer a one to one exchange, one request which you are to carry out for us, for which in return we shall give this child's magical energy to sustain you in this world. Once more, heed our words and answer our prayers, o’ spirits of the underworld.”

  The man gave the knife back to the female, who sheathed it into a small sheath, before hiding it inside her cloak. Then, the three of them placed their hands to their chests, small orbs of red liquid forming between their palms — most likely the blood that the man had just splashed down onto the ritual circle.

  Then, the trio joined the chant that the dark cloaked individuals were doing.

  The ritual circle below them and the gorgan child in the center absorbed the blood that was poured onto it, before lighting up with a bright red colour, before a red mist began to rise out of it, slowly moving towards the child. “That doesn’t look good…” I commented in my mind, shedding a slight sweat.

  “What on earth…”

  “Huh?” I looked at Avy, who looked absolutely horrified, as well as disgusted — but both of those emotions were not even the most noticeable thing. A shiver ran down my spine - her eyes… They were filled with what was likely pure rage.

  “H-Hey Avy? What’s wrong—”

  “That’s a blood ritual. A forbidden art.” Avy grit her teeth.

  “It allows the caster to use their or any one else's blood to connect with forces beyond this world, mainly, the underworld, which is filled with malicious spirits and creatures that would wish nothing more but destruction and death onto the world… However, the art was made taboo by the World God, because it was often required to sacrifice the life of another being to work.” Avy gave a brief explanation, before standing up, about to move towards the ritual. I quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her down next to me. “H-Hold on Avy! I know you’re clearly angry and even horrified that they would use a child for this thing, but rushing in—”

  “Faofa.”

  She cut me off. Avy looked at me with a dead stare, one that made my entire body tremble lightly. “If we don’t stop it now, the child will die and they’ll summon a creature that won’t be easy to stop. Residents of the underworld are not to be played around with.”

  I remained silent. I suppose Avy was right…

  While I knew little to nothing about what this all was about or what the ‘Underworld’ and what not were – it was clear that it wasn’t anything good. For a moment, I hesitated, but I don’t know why I did. I knew it was better to interrupt it now before it was too late, but it was like my body was resisting that idea…

  After an exhale, I finally pushed myself up onto my legs and stretched out. “Fine. But then let’s do it fast. I’ll create a commotion to stop it. You move in and take out the ritual casters while I save the gorgan child.”

  Avy looked at me with a small smile, before giving a small nod.

  Then, I climbed onto the crate we were hiding behind moments before, lifting my right hand up into the air above the group. After taking in a breath, I leapt up into the air, as high as I could, before swinging my hand down to the ground. In an instant, several large shadow appendages shot out from the shadows on the wall behind me, before crashing down onto the entire group, stopping the ritual.

  The circles glow faded while the mist disappeared – as a dust storm kicked up. “Now Avy!” I shouted, the concealment spell she had cast on me disappearing.

  “Right!”

  Avy dashed into the dust storm, where the group coughed and wobbled around.

  “W-What was that!?”

  “I don’t know…”

  “We’re under attack–!?”

  “Argh—!” One of the cloaked individuals was struck down by Avy, falling to the ground. The rest of the group noticed her, and a panic broke out. “Intruder! We have an intruder–!”

  “We’re under attack—! Argh—!” Avy struck down two more of the cloaked individuals, before swiftly moving around and attacking the rest. The pale man who had initiated the ritual coughed, stumbling out of the dust cloud with the other two individuals dressed in the bright red cloaks. “Mesh, go find the boss…”

  “But Tarsh—!”

  “That’s an order Mesh. We are under attack. The boss must be informed immediately.” The human man with the upper ponytail grit his teeth, before looking at the female with the horn and handing her Tarsh.

  “Take care of him, Leing.”

  “Right.”

  Then, the man ran off back into the doorway they had originally come from. Once he left, Tarsh looked back at the dust cloud and then rummaged a bit inside his cloak, taking out a small device - a communication device, similar to a walkie-talkie - and bringing it up to his face. “Code red. Intruder alert…” He coughed afterward.

  “Careful Tarsh, you were struck by that sudden attack.”

  After he spoke into the device, many of the other doors flung open, before many, many dark cloaked individuals ran into the room – all carrying weapons. I looked at them, before doing a quick headcount with ‘overworld detection’. “About forty of them…”

  “Avy! Reinforcements have come!” I called out to her, before landing onto a shadow appendage and shooting down next to the gorgan child. Avy struck down the last dark cloaked individual from the original group, before looking at the reinforcements and grinning. “Tch… Small fry.. But you’ll do just fine either way." She said, before dashing at the large group, who all charged back at her.

  Leaning down, I quickly analysed the ritual circle under the child – just to make sure it wasn’t rigged to explode or something after removing the child.

  No threats detected.

  “Good, then let’s get her out of here.” I quickly picked up the child, before about to make a run towards the staircase, before a sudden red appendage shot towards me, forcing me to leap back to dodge. The dust cloud cleared as I threw a gaze over at the caster of the appendage.

  It was the female with the horn, who was kneeling down in front of the pale man with the wolf ears – who was leaned up against the wall. “Magic… And it’s similar to the one used by that man who killed Iyka's sister.”

  I then shed a sweat, before forming several orbs of venom around me and then dashing forward, before firing off venom bullets at the female. She retaliated with her own magic, firing towards me red bullets – which collided with my venom bullets, intercepting them. “I just have to get up to the door and then call Avy over… Escape shouldn’t be hard.”

  I ran closer to the wall where the elevated platform that led to the exit door was, before leaping up towards it, using the shadows below me to boost me up. Tarsh coughed up blood, glaring down Faofa.

  “Don’t let him escape with the sacrifice…!”

  Leing grit her teeth, before forming a large red magic circle in front of her, firing off a barrage of red bullets towards Faofa.

  I had just landed onto the platform, flipping around to call out to Avy, before quickly using ‘Shadowlord’ to create a shield to block the incoming barrage fire from the female with the horn. She continued to fire off the barrage, increasing the firepower. “Damnit– I have to somehow make her cease the fire…”

  Throwing a gaze over to my shadow, I saw Arvalor's eyes shine in it.

  “I didn’t want to use him, however… Not like I have much choice here.” I exhaled. “Arvalor, go to the shadow closest to them and intercept them!”

  The shadow beast's eyes disappeared from my shadow.

  For a bit, the onslaught of the barrage fire continued to rain down on me from the female, before the shadows near her and the injured man raged a bit and then, Arvalor leapt out of them, towards the female. Tarsh’s eyes widened. “L-Leing, out of the way…!” The man leapt forward, pushing Leing out of the way, while Arvalor flew over them, stopping himself, before looking at the duo.

  The two cloaked individuals glared at the shadow beast, while Arvalor let out a strong roar, shaking the entire place.

  Arvalor has used the skill [Intimidation].

  “Wh-what the… I can’t… move!” Leing tried to force her body up to attack the shadow beast. The other cloaked individuals that Avy was tearing through also all froze up – confusion and panic raging through them, before they were struck by the woman, who had a wide grin across her face – her talons elongated and stained with their blood.

  Arvalor leapt at the female and the male, ready to strike them both down.

  “Now–! Time to get out of here—!”

  I removed the shadow shield, flipping towards the door, about to bust through it…

  “Implosion.”

  A low voice suddenly echoed. Then, a small red orb formed between me and the door. Barely noticing it, I quickly created a shadow shield around me and the child in my arms, before the red orb erupted — releasing a violent explosion that destroyed the platform and the door, shaking the entire place. I was sent flying back towards the rooms center, hitting the ground rather hard, the shadow shield around me shattering.

  “Argh..!”

  I exclaimed, before looking at the gorgan child in my arms. Thankfully, she was fine – her breathing still steady. I then rose back up into a kneeling position. “What was that..?”

  “B-Boss!”

  The woman with the horn called out. Then, I spotted the one who had cast that spell. A man floated down to the ground, landing down gently. As soon as I saw him, my eyes widened. Arvalor growled, before roaring and charging at the man. The man looked at the shadow beast, chuckling. “A shadow beast chimera? Intriguing…”

  Then, without even moving a muscle, a red line formed to his side.

  “Slice.” A red slash fired out from the line, destroying Arvalor in an instant, causing the shadow beast to return back to my shadow. I shed a sweat, my body trembling while the man brushed off his hands and stepped forward a bit. “Really Tarsh, Leing? Can’t you even carry out a simple ritual I have entrusted to you?”

  Tarsh and Leing lowered their heads.

  “Forgive us Boss… We weren’t expecting an ambush.”

  The man sighed. “It’s fine.”

  Then, he looked at me. “Now then, would you kindly hand back that child to us? She’s rather important for what we want to do.”

  I narrowed my eyes on the man, my body instinctively stepping back a bit.

  “No way… T-That’s the same…”

  Flashbacks to the scene in the forest ran through my mind — for a few moments, I was brought back to the day when I had felt the most terror since reincarnating into this world. “That’s the same man as that day…” However, unlike the last time I saw him, the only thing that remained the same had been the cloak he wore. Now, his face wasn’t obstructed by a mask or a hood – making it fully visible.

  A human, with deep, blood red eyes, rather pale skin and short, dark red hair. From his bottom lip down to his chin, a stitch line was spottable.

  The man stopped at around the beginning of the ritual circle in the center, a small smile across his face, while his eyes narrowed onto me. “I will be willing to overlook your attack and even let you get out alive if you do.”

  I grit my teeth, while my body continued trembling.

  Even with the strength I had gained ever since that day… The magical energy that was exerted by this man…

  It made one message clear.

  I was not able to beat him in a fight.