The elder stuttered, beginning to actually feel fear from Yumi for the first time. He saw the grave words she spoke weren’t merely empty threats. “Fake world?” As confused as he was about what she was talking about in part, he knew that she was serious now. No doubt for him existed anymore that she would do as she stated.

“Stop stalling and just answer me!” She shook him roughly trying to get him to focus on her rather than the confusion. While not wholly successful in the attempt, it did get some attention directed back on her. “Why were you with Yuki and what did you do to him?”

“I-it’s as I said! I don’t know anything!”

Baring her anger through her teeth, Yumi fought against her uncontrollable rage. “Still insisting you did nothing. Then you won’t mind while I wipe out your village just to be sure you’re telling the truth!”

“You can’t be serious, Master Yumi! We’ve done nothing!”

“You’ve done plenty, you manipulative old man!”

Fear firmly rooted into the old man’s body as he shook for what Yumi would do. Any sort of control that he thought he might have had on the situation with her burned up before his eyes. He had pushed things too far. “You can’t do this! You promised to protect us!”

“Maybe in your next life you’ll think about not trampling on good will!” Yumi threw him back to the ground behind her as she stepped forward.

The elder hurried to his feet grabbing at Yumi’s arm to stop her from attacking his village. “It doesn’t make any sense!”

“You’ve pissed me off and someone I love is missing. You’ll have to forgive me for not thinking right now!” White particles began to gather up quickly into a series of orbs around Yumi.

Horror filled his eyes seeing that she showed no signs of stopping. He jumped out in front of her trying to keep her from firing. But nothing that he could do would be enough to stop her. Even that much he knew. All efforts were futile, Yumi’s powers couldn’t be stopped by him. “You’re going to kill them!”

Yumi glared down at the old man as he shrank before her towering rage. “They aren’t even real.”

Chapter 401 – Reality Lies

Back on the road, Yumi left the village behind, keeping it out of her sight. “He knew nothing,” she cursed the man’s uselessness to her. She had almost nothing to go on now other than a direction. And nothing more to release her anger upon other than the land itself. “I will find Yuki. I swear it!”

But even making that promise was an empty one. She had no clues and no tips. It was as though he had simply vanished from the world. “It’s not because Phoibe pulled him out, is it? But I’m still stuck in here.” Accepted as a possibility, she dismissed it quickly as unlikely. If Phoibe had been able to rescue them, she would have been pulled out as well or at least notified. She was still trapped within a virtual world of her mind’s creation.

Hours of searching turned into days quickly. To her surprise, the entire search had been quiet. Not even a demon appeared before her. She actually would have welcomed it if only as a change from finding nothing. She wasn’t even sure she was on the right path. Finding a demon would have felt like something was right. But she still didn’t know where the elder had put Yuki and he was too stubborn or afraid to reveal that detail despite what happened.

Despite not finding any signs, she couldn’t stop moving. It felt like if she did Yuki would be lost. He would be out of her hands. Believing that he would be found if she didn’t stop was the only thing keeping her going despite fatigue that set into her body. ‘I’ll be able to find you. It’ll be just like before. I’ll find you and stop whatever is happening!’

However, that determination started to wear on her body. She refused to stop and allow herself even a moment of a break. Yet it caught up to her. There was nothing that could be done about it. All of the emotions wouldn’t get her to move forward another step.

She needed a break.

Yumi was naturally against the thought of pausing even for a second. Not that her body listened to her anymore. She collapsed into the dirt tasting grass in her mouth as she panted heavily, unable to stop breathing hard. Even trying to spit it out was too much effort for her, rolling over as well. “Dammit! I can’t…”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Struggling to get back to her feet, Yumi couldn’t make any sort of movement. Resting didn’t seem to be recovering anything for her. She was stuck until she gave her body rest.

And for an hour that seemed to be the case.

While her body refused her commands, her hearing hadn’t worsened by any means. She heard familiar sounds in the distance. Though they were closer than they should have been. ‘How come I didn’t notice them before…’ It was too heavy in sound to be human, that much she knew. ‘Demons…and I can’t move…’

It almost felt like they waited for the moment when she couldn’t move to strike. They had to be out for her blood, all of them were of course. She killed too many of them for them not to want to kill her. ‘I wonder what happens if I die in my mind? Is that like real death?’ It was something not even Yuki really knew the answer to. They just tried to avoid it. In this world pain still felt real like everything else and death would be no different at the very least.

Yumi had enough strength to drag herself up towards a rock, not that it gave much in the way of protection for her. Out in the middle of a field, there wasn’t going to be any meaningful cover for her. She could only watch as the demons approached her.

They came in a pair with one not looking like the other. In blue skin and white wings with a twisted horn, the demon stood well over her with a halberd in hand. While the other had pale green skin and a large belly and heavily defined muscles covered its upper body. They appeared strong, though she knew if she was at her peak, they would be no match for her.

She summoned up her power into an orb of white energy as all she could muster in defense. “Step any closer and I’ll take your head where you stand!” she bluffed knowing that she barely had enough to even snuff out a candle.

“Demon Hunter Yumi?” the blue one asked.

This wasn’t what she expected. Neither actually appeared interested in attacking her. If she didn’t know any better they were only here to talk. ‘What’s going on? Did my bluff work?’ Not likely that her bluff worked, but the demons did act strangely before her. She could only really answer them and hope to understand the meaning behind their presence. “Yes.”

“We bear a message for you then,” replied the green demon.

‘Message? What’s this all about? Demons trying to be civil now?’ Confused settled into her body now that she felt at a complete loss to what was happening. She wanted answers and it seemed that she might be getting one from them. “What message?”

“Our Lord has requested your presence.”

“Requested?” Things only got stranger for her. She hoped things would start making sense soon. ‘Why does a demon want to see me? This is a very strange way to get a fight out of me.’ But since it was a demon she had no interest in obeying anything that they asked of her. “Tell your Lord that I decline. I’m not interested and I have more important matters right now.”

“The request is not negotiable, Hunter.”

“You think you can threaten me?”

The blue demon spoke up in turn, now taking over. “You will see our Lord. You will want to come.”

“And why is that?”

“Because we hold the only human that you care about.”

Suddenly energy flew back into Yumi’s body and she leapt to her feet and beheaded the green demon instantly without pause. The blue demon leveled its spear at her, but it twisted into a lump of metal before her telekinetic powers. Yumi pinned the demon to the grass with a white blade in her hand threatening him. “You have Yuki?!”

She finally had the clue that she needed. Yuki was somewhere. She just needed to drag out the information from the demon. “Tell me where he is! Before you’re no longer able to walk!”

“You’re as violent and merciless as the rumors say, Hunter.”

“I don’t care about rumors. Answer my question or suffer until you do!”

“Killing me won’t get you the answers you want.”

“I don’t plan on killing you, not until you answer me. But that doesn’t mean I won’t make your life hell until you do!” She dug her sword into the demon’s leg without any hesitation. It quickly made her point to the demon.

Though to her surprise, the demon handed over a scroll to her. “Had you not been so violent you would have already had your answer. It was always our intent on telling you where you can find him.”

Yumi backed off as she didn’t really know what to make of it. The scroll before her seemed to have what she sought, yet it shouldn’t be so easy. ‘What sort of catch is it? Is this just a lie? They got a trap waiting for me where this scroll leads me?’

She snatched the scroll away from the demon with her power. If nothing else, it would give her a way to search for Yuki unlike before. Even if it was a trap, she could go in knowing that and get more answers.

“Believe me?” the demon asked, watching her read.

Glancing up from the scroll, Yumi coldly killed the demon with her gravity power without a second thought. “No, I don’t, but I’ll still check to see what is at this location.” Upon the scroll was a map, one that she assumed was where the trap set for her was supposed to be. She hoped for something a little more useful than what she got though. It could hardly be considered a map. But perhaps her modern sensibilities skewed her expectations. All that the paper held was a few lines and rough landmarks that really didn’t give her enough to go on.

She rolled up the scroll and put it under her arm while she looked out at the horizon. There was at least one landmark on it that she recognized. The strangely shaped mountain in the distance with what appeared to be a crack down the middle splitting it in two. It was something that could be seen from all around, even from the Forest of Demons. She never had a reason to go to the mountain since it was too far away for her to travel.

A reason surfaced for her now though. Yuki might be there, it was a long shot for her. That much she knew all too well. It was most definitely a trap that they set out for her. All the demons in the area wanted her dead for what she had been doing. She trusted none of them. But if they invoked his name, then she might get some answers on his true location. That was her only hope at this point.

Recharged with determination suddenly, Yumi found that she could move again. The fatigue was gone. A clue to the whereabouts of Yuki finally came. She could find him at last. “I’m coming, Yuki!”