Chapter 21 -Unexpected Encounter-

After our ‘little talking’ we decided to find the boss room and some artifacts in the way. It was awkward that we didn’t talk almost all the way. When monsters would show up, we would just engage without muttering a single word.

I sometimes wonder if Onyx had already gotten his powers back and if he did, he probably would be able to talk to me in my mind. That would be useful for when I’m close to the shards, or when this sword shows more ancient texts appear.

While fighting some monsters or walking through the pathways of the dungeon, I would think about how Onyx’s knowledge would help me if he could talk to me and see through my eyes.

But I was rudely interrupted by a hard pillar in my way. Walking into the wall which was between two paths. Falling backwards onto my rear, I cursed the first word that appeared in my mind under my breath before rubbing my forehead.

“What the–.” I let out before my head behind hearing some laughs and giggles. But they quickly hid their faces aside from Chuzeoth, he let out small scoffs and shaked his head.

Even though he was older than me and more experienced I still shot glares at him for laughing at me when they could’ve warned me. Even so, it was quite refreshing seeing the old dragon laugh once in his lifetime.

I pushed myself to my feet, looking in both carved paths. I ignited a fire spell and threw one to each passage, to our surprise it didn’t go far enough to show which one was a dead end.

“It looks like we have to separate into pairs,” stated the blue-eyed dragon. “Since what Alter did earlier didn’t seem to work at all.”

Dammit, is spitting up the only option? If possible I’ve wanted to stay as a group, I couldn’t imagine if they got injured or worse, died. But our options were limited and the second option was not the best. After all, it required all of us to go down one path and probably be a dead end giving us a non-progress achievement.

I agreed to what Pearl said, the pair had already been decided when I questioned it. Pearl and Chuzeoth, while I got Eugene as my partner. Before we parted ways, I told the princess to give Eugene and Chuzeoth the bracelets we had gotten days before.

The white haired girl had told both how the bracelet works and its technique. Of course that had brought me to ease, even though Chuzeoth and Eugene are known for their incredible talent in battles.

It’s been said that the three of them have the power to rival higher-rank basilisk, or marshals as people put it. Marshals are known for being capable of destroying cities and nations, leaving nothing but the memory that people would have.

But even if that was the case, I still can’t help but worry, after all this family wasn’t mine. But I had the responsibility of taking care of it even if it meant laying my life down, if I couldn’t protect them, how am I able to protect the whole continent? Hell, how am I even supposed to protect a whole dimension?

I gazed at my right hand and clenched it. I knew the strength I had was not enough to at least fight a Marshal yet alone a high basilisk, the only way I could fight one and be almost equal would be by using my aether phase. As if losing control when I barely tapped into its power was an option, finding a better solution was the key to get stronger and learn how to control my aether phase.

“You know, this is probably the first time we had some alone time as siblings.”

I swayed my attention to Eugene, putting my hand down again to my side, forgetting what was going through my mind. Then, I collected myself together and nodded slightly.

“I know it's going to be difficult for you to talk about the situation right now but remember, everyone who cares for you is there to listen to you,” The purple haired Eugene started forward into the dark passage with a smile I have not seen from him, aside from Onyx’s memories.

Not being able to utter a single word, replying with a smile that was small but enough for the moment. Though I could tell from his eyes that he wanted me to try a little more but all he did was letting out a sigh.

Sorry, but I’m still unsure of what to do or say to you right now. I thought. These emotions were something new to me, not being able to comprehend what was happening was frustrating for me.

Sometimes I would even hate my old world for what it had done to me, making me emotionless towards others. Most importantly, I would hate myself for not being able to give this life an opportunity for a better life.

Maybe, just maybe someday in the near future when there is no more war to fight. In a world where me and everyone else are able to live together in harmony.

Just imagining the scene where Ezar and Aferon would be the most famous and essential place where people could live together without being separated from each other.

Then, a piercing sound of clashing sounds would be heard from a distance. Eugene and I both looked at each other before running into the direction of the sounds.

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Aggressive conversations were being made between the heavy fighting of swords and magic. I thought of using abeyance to close the distance between us and them but the thought was turned down by the sight up close of a cliff. Under the cliff was the clashing of a party of dragons against what appeared to be a humanoid creature.

My thoughts were quickly drawn onto the speculation of the creature being a basilisk, but the closer I paid attention to its appearance the more wrong I was.

It wasn’t a basilisk or any creature of a different dimension, no, this was something even I thought wasn’t possible for them to do. The main reason why I thought it was a basilisk was not because of its mana, I thought it was because of its horns, reddish black horns that came out on top of her head that went in a spiral like a goat’s horn.

Activating my ring phase zero I was able to see its mana, its aura. It-Its powerful, it is solid enough to fight one battalion. I felt a sensation of fear yet excitement was there.

Faster than light, my thoughts were shut down by a sword it was holding. It was a thin brown sword, only one sided blade. Almost like a…

The words that formed in my mind had brought me doubt. In this world the technology was not as advanced as it was in my old world but it was better because of magic.

There shouldn’t be any things related to that world. My mind spun around with questions that seemed obvious but they weren’t.

I turned to my side to ask the next move but no one was there.

A sense of desperation and fear dwelled inside me. Where is he, looking everywhere, panicking. Then, my eyes widened in realization. I faced where the horned creature was, the creature was facing the purple-haired dragon.

I cursed silently in my mind as I quickly rushed into the scene.

“Eugene stop this, you don’t stand a chance against her, neither of us stand a chance.” I admitted getting close to both of them. Still having active phase zero, I waited for them to separate and do a heavy blow.

Here it comes, I thought. Using ten percent of my power to get between them and neutralizing them both, Eugene across the cave and the creature I pinned down, just hard enough to form cracks in the ground.

Its strength was abnormal, even using ten percent wasn’t enough. If I even raised it to or above fifty percent I would start to hear that voice, a sacrifice that I could live with, I thought to myself.

As I confined its movements the features which were not visible from afar came to my attention, features which could only be described in one way, a woman?

“G-Goddamn monster,” said the woman, catching her breath. The confusion and startled feeling of being able to hear—understand the words that came out from her lips showed in a moment.

It was an intellectual creature, one that could and undoubtedly understand the words from people. This day couldn’t get any worse, were the words that came to mind as I debated whether to start a conversation with the creature or not.

But what she said had barely sunk into me, ‘Goddamn monster.’ I repeated in my head with an annoyed feeling.

I then calmed down, letting go of the ring phase and jumping backwards allowing the goat horned woman into standing up. “Who are you… no, what are you?” I questioned.

A green light glow formed around her body, Healing magic. The bruises and scratches that were once there disappeared and after that she responded, “that is not a nice way to ask a lady about her origins, is it now, boy?”

‘Boy?’, according to her I was a boy? Enough of that she was probably just trying to provoke me. “But to you I probably don’t look like a lady but a monster.” She added.

I nodded, admitting that her speculations were true.

The so-called lady let out a sigh and said, “How about we make a deal? I tell you about my origin and other questions you have and in return you tell me what I need to know. Deal?”

It took some time to figure out what to do, but it worked out. We helped the party that she was attacking earlier go outside for treatment. To her defense they had attacked her first because of her appearance and I don’t blame them. To be honest even I would’ve attacked her too.

Her behavior was so similar to that of a girl I met a long time ago.

It is interesting how life works in this world. No stop Alter, don’t think about the old world. I shaked my head, pushing my thoughts–those thoughts in the back of my mind. I need to focus on the present, not the past or the fut–.

Unfortunately, before I could finish my self talk, a horde of screams came into play. Screams of pain.

The three of us turned our heads to where the sounds came from. Without a signal, we all run into that direction. As we kept running the voices got louder and louder, until we went there.

My eyes widened in horror, bodies were everywhere. A scene of scarlet red painted the gigantic cave, poodles of blood surrounded the bodies like islands. “Wha–What is going on?”

“Alter wait,” Eugene pointed to where some were alive, “Look there, they are fighting some type of monster.”

It took a moment for my eyes to sway away, ‘till I heard the echoes of metal clashing. A group of dragons from different tribes together, fighting a human-like–but it wasn’t one.

Its features were way different, having pale gray skin, dragon-like armor that only covered half its face., red wings that were sharp on the bottom, long chains wrapped around its wrist. The weapon it had was identical to the soul blade, but not the same. There was ancient text in the middle of the blade, colored blue. The soul blade had ancient structure along with black gems.

The boss wasn’t a normal boss.

It was an Arch-Demon.