Naked Heart

Alice’s POV:

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Morgan stood up from the ground with a still trembling body, but he was in a visibly better shape than before. "Don't worry. We aren't going to bite~" I said with a little smile and a small chuckle, while my hands were on my hips. He nodded slightly and then he asked.

"S- So what do you want to do now? They were the members of a clan on this planet called Zarzar. I- It's a very powerful demon clan." Hearing his words my ears moved. Demons? "What do you mean by demons?" Hiro questioned him as he crossed his arms with raised brows.

"You don't know about them? Did your universe not have any demons!?" He said with a surprised face upon hearing that we had no idea about such a race. "No, we had beastmen, humans, divine beasts, elves and something called Harbingers, but we have never met with the last," Hiro explained calmly.

"We also have those, but we have nagas, halflings, and demons too. Oh, we also have ogres." He started enumerating the species that could be found here. What's with this? We had nothing of the sort! "And what about their strengths?" I questioned him as I leaned slightly over in my curiosity. Noo! D- Don't eat me! Was what he thought so I quickly leaned back... I'm not such a monster!

"E- Ehm, demons are relatively rare, but they are equally strong compared to some of the halflings. Halflings are humanoids, but with some kind of monster mixed in their blood, they usually have bloodlines too, which makes them possess powerful skills and abilities. For example dragonkins... If I'd have to name the difference, then I'd say about t- ten percent compared to normal cultivators at the fourth level."

Hmph. We are still much better. We have zero point six more Crypt than others and in our combat forms, it becomes even more! [Hahaha! We are so unfair! Even after such a reshuffle and so many new things, we are still so much stronger than even these races!] Hiro started laughing in his mind and I had the same opinion.

Fufu~ My race is still the best, though I wonder how Dragonkins would react? "Hey, do you know about the relationship between dragonkins and dragons?" I questioned him suspiciously with furrowed brows. "Ehm. They are supposed to have similar reactions upon seeing a Dragon God to divine beasts only even stronger because they aren't true dragons. They can't resist their feeling that much. Or so I've heard."

He explained. This shrimp was so fearful... now seriously. I wouldn't want to be eaten either, but what does he fear so much? If we would want to eat him, then we would have done so long ago... "Interesting. So, why should we worry about that Zarzar clan? As you have seen, we can kill cultivators at the ninth stage easily." I questioned him as I put my hand under my chin while I thought about these dragonkins.

"I said it because the director is a cultivator at the third stage of the World Realm and it also has elders at the first and second stage! You should leave because every cultivator who is part of the clan has a soul monolith! Since these geniuses died, everyone is going to know! It's only a question of time before they arrive! I- I'm sure that I'll be killed, but you can still run away!"

He explained in a worried tone with an anxious face. How nice of him, though the case is indeed more serious. We forgot that the universe wasn't the same here. The leaders of a clan could be at the eighth level for all we know! But Morgan also forgot something!

"Aren't you forgetting something? Do you really think that they too are going to come back here? Only geniuses were supposed to be able to collect enough points to come here, which makes me question two things. Firstly, how could someone who has enough time to become a school leader be a genius? Do you think that any of those elders can come back here immediately?"

"Only powerful enough people were able to collect enough points to teleport here, which makes me think of my second question. As a 'trash'. How did you get here?" I explained everything to him what I thought about and then stepped on the tail of the mouse. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as I looked deeply into his eyes.

He is more than what he lets others think, but he still has no chance against us. "Just tell us the truth, or at least don't lie to us and say that you don't want to talk about it. Lying is impossible in front of us, you know?" I crushed the tail of the mouse while I kept up a little smile on my face.

Suddenly his whole demeanor changed to a completely different one.  He let down his shoulders, sighed loudly as he looked down and then he looked up into my eyes with an 'I don't care anymore' face as he said. "Alright, you've got me. I was hoping that rumor about your eyes were just fairy tales, but it seems like it wasn't."

"I was indeed bullied, but it was only because, even though I'm only at the third stage of World Founding Realm, but I have progressed that much in only five years and because of that they became envious of me. The truth is that I'm also a halfling and a rare one at that."

"I've never told this to anyone, but since you are even rarer, I don't think that I should be afraid of telling it to you. I'm a rare kind of halfling, called Lightning Weasel... D- Don't look at me like that. Not everything that is rare has a good name... My good aspect is my quick cultivation speed, though I know that you are quicker than me even in that."

"I don't have anything special except my speed." He finished his long explanation as he quickly ran around us. He was indeed much faster compared to the average cultivators and looking at his speed alone, he was almost as quick as us on the third stage. Of course, he is nowhere close to us, now that we are at the ninth stage.

Just as he finished his explanation, a few people appeared in the air. They had large scales covering their joints with horns on their heads, wings on their backs and some of them also had tails. I guess they were demons. They arrived and landed in front of us in but a moment. It was a group of four and all of them were at the peak of ninth stage.

"Morgan? What's happened here!?" One of them questioned as he looked at Morgan. This demon didn't seem to be hostile with Morgan, but he still looked at us suspiciously and ready to fight. Morgan kept looking at us and then at the demon, but before he could open his mouth, I've answered the demons question.

"We killed them because they were annoying our eyes and because we were in need of a temporary residence, problem?" I said, a little provokingly with a small smile. He looked down and saw my tail then after looking over our bodies he sighed as he said. "No... But in place of them, you will have to join our clan."

Feeling our rising bloodlust and seeing our smiles turning colder, he raised his hands in a defensive position as he said. "H- Hey, hey, calm down. You won't regret if you join. We have a lot of pills, which would be perfect for you. All you have to do are quests. You see, we have a really lot of monsters in our territories, thanks to the evil dungeons, so we have to fight against them."

"It also comes with a lot of rewards, like I said. Now that you have killed so many ninth stage cultivators, we are going to be short on people. If not for this sudden change, we would have raided the dungeon to destroy its core. I- I just want to ask you to join in their place." He corrected his commanding voice into a tame sheep one.

Now, that's better! There are so many things after the fifth level, it would be really good if we could finally reach it. If only we would have talked it over with Ellery... Oh, really. We forgot to contact them! "We will be there on this raid thing. If you want us to go with you, then wait before that," my dear husband explained while I was already taking out the communication stele.

The demons nodded and sat down on the same bench, the other thirteen sat on. After trying to contact Ellery, I failed. [I think that it's because our stupid steles are too low level. Who knows which part of the universe they are at? There is no way that we can contact her with these, though you can try Max nad Rose.] Hiro said thoughtfully and then advised cleverly.

I tried contacting them as well, but it was for naught. I guess we will have to get our hands on a better way to communicate. "Alright, we can go. Show us the way if you don't mind..." I shouted towards the demons. Why is it that I always forget to ask for their names? [It's because you don't care about them. Nothing more...] Hiro told me the truth, honestly. And I honestly have to tell you that what he said was indeed true...

"Morgan? Are you a member of this Zarzar clan, or not? Since humans were members of it, I can guess that this is a mixed school, right?" Hiro turned back and questioned Morgan with raised brows. "Ah, yes. I'm a member of it. I'll also go, but I have a few things to take care of before that." Morgan answered with a shrug of his shoulders then turned around and flew the way we came from.

We followed after the demons and arrived at their clan. It took up an area of a hundred kilometers, which was very small compared with the Silverleaf school. I guess clans were more usual in this universe. It was on the side of a huge volcano. It was a world of lava and hell.

The buildings were built from volcanic rocks, which made this whole place seem to be cold and devoid of life. But contrary to that, there were many such buildings and we have sensed a lot of presences under the ground or in those buildings. It seems like demons like such places, though somehow I've got in the mood to bathe in lava in my true form.

That's quite weird... [We could also do it naked in our human or battle forms.] The perverted Hiro immediately crept out of his shell and was already thinking of how to use lava for perverted reasons. I didn't even remark on his thoughts... We flew into the volcano, flew through the lava, and entered through a hole.

What we found there was a breathtaking view! I love this place! Under the lava in the hole, there was a huge cavern with shining, colorful crystals everywhere. The ceiling was radiating with a dim and colorful light which lit up this whole cavern. The ground was covered with a thin layer of lava here and there, but who cares about such a thing...

Following after the demon guy, we entered a room which had volcanic stones as walls. It was a little room with a table and a few chairs around it. There were three cultivators who were at the ninth stage and now with us and this guy's friends it became nine. As we entered the room the demons inside, measured us up with curious looks.

I've also spotted a guy, who had a deathwish with his obviously lustful face. "Hello, Pazahir! Who are these newcomers? Also, what tier did you reach in that little challenge the universes' creators made?" A female demon questioned Pazahir as she stood up and gave a kiss on his lips. So that's his name. His friends seemed to be the silent type...

Seeing their little kiss, I've got in the mood to kiss Hiro. This is so weird. I think that this is the first time that I've seen someone kiss the other publicly, like us. But I also saw something that was different, in her eyes. Could it be? That would be quite surprising. "Hello dear, they are..." He wanted to introduce us, only to realize that we have never introduced.

It seems like this is going to become a custom... "Fufu, my name is Alice and he is my husband Hiro~" I said happily as I gave a small kiss on Hiro's face while looking into the female demon's eyes." But that lustful guy was still staring at me in such a way, which was getting me very annoyed.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Would you stop, or do you have a deathwish?" Hiro looked at him and pressed his aura and bloodlust on the guy's body. He started shivering as he quickly looked the other way. "*Cough* Right... So my name is Pazahir Veasir and she is my wife Fleudor Veasir." He said the 'wife' with a little smirk and challenging eyes and then he also introduced the others in the room.

I didn't bother to remember their names. It's not like I'd meet or talk with them again... [Hmph. Did he just challenge our love? Or what was that smirk supposed to be?] I fumed in my mind and complained to Hiro. [He can come at us anytime, haha.] Hiro laughed upon hearing my words happily. My protective mate hugged my waist tightly as a small smile slipped onto his face.

"So, why did you bring us here? Or when do you want to start with that raid of yours? Let's do it because we want to move on and explore this new place." I questioned him as I coiled my tail around Hiro's left leg unconsciously. I guess this has become a habit of mine. "Like I said, we were about to go if not for this huge change so if all of you are ready, then we can go right now!"

Luckily for me, Pazahir answered like that as he looked at everyone one by one for confirmation. Seeing that we all agree, he said - "Alright, let's go!" We quickly left through the hole and flew towards our destination. Fuck! We forgot to touch that memory crystal! Ugh... whatever, we still have time.

We followed after them and this hell-like world continued on for hundreds of kilometers. Of course, flying through that much was nothing for us. While we were flying, we started seeing more and more monsters on the ground. "So what is this flood thing?" I asked like a stupid woman who didn't know anything. I can't help it. I've never heard of 'evil dungeons' in the other universe.

Fleudor answered my question as she flew next to us. "Probably the universe you lived in was too young, so you haven't met with it, but if there aren't enough Harbingers, Chaos energy is going to turn many dungeons corrupted and evil who live only to kill everything around them."

"This energy also creates many monsters continuously, making it hard for us, intelligent beings to live a leisure life of cultivation... Whatever you do, you will always have to fight to stay alive here. Although Harbingers were rare at this place and even if there were some, they were killed by such raids like us, just on a higher level."

"Since this universe is very old, our powerful clans, sects, and families have killed most of the Harbingers, but we realized it too late, that although the Harbingers ate up the planets and the living beings around them, but it was still better than these never ending monster hordes and these evil dungeons who are spawning such monsters endlessly."

Fleudor explained everything clearly. [So the Harbingers are actually here to keep the balance in the universe. They are probably living off of the Chaos Energy and the devastation they cause is probably subsidiary.] Hiro started thinking about Fleudor's words. "And are we supposed to find the dungeon core and kill it?" I asked as I raised my brows and Pazahir confirmed my question with a - "Yes."

"Now the only problem is that we have to enter the dungeon, which is underground, kill the monsters on our way, reach the core, and then kill it. I hope that the dungeon didn't grow legs..." Pazahir explained what they wanted to do. The dungeon cores were usually in the close proximity of the last floor. With our mind powers, we will be able to find it easily.

We flew towards the ground and flew through a hole which had a diameter of one meter. Even the entrance is creepy... The deeper we went, the darker everything became. Considering our flight speed, it took only a moment to land, but there wasn't even a speck of light. We heard only the monsters' roars and howls.

Hiro's green eyes were two shining dots, but through his eyes, I saw that mines were the same. The others used their mind powers to see, but we didn't have to as we were True Divine Beasts. If we can't see in the dark then no one can... After walking for a few seconds, a hand broke out of the ground and grabbed onto Pazahir's leg.

It started pulling him downwards and not even a cultivator's strength at the peak of the ninth stage was enough to escape. I used earth magic to explode the ground and Hiro quickly thrust his spear through the thing under the ground. It was a very grotesque monster.

It looked like a human, but its head stood backward. It also had long claws and canines. It didn't have its lower jaw and chin, all it had was a tongue, which was split into two parts. Its eyes were hollowed out and it had long black hair. Hiro leaned closer to look at it, but it suddenly jumped towards his face, even though he pierced the monster's chest! I thrust my tail through its head and protected my mate.

Out of surprise, Hiro grew a clone out of his back and jumped backward with it. I embraced his flying body from behind and stopped his new original body. "For fuck's sake! That scared the shit out of me..." Hiro shouted and then lowered his voice. "What the hell is this creeping thing? Like a horror movie..."

Hiro said while shaking his head as a shudder ran down on his back. I caressed his back to soothe him, though he didn't fear them. He was simply jump-scared... I raised my tail in front of us and looked at this monster's head closely. Disgusting...

"This is bad. This means that this dungeon has eaten and transformed a human. Now that it has done so, it can replicate the person's body endlessly." Fleudor went past us and stopped next to her pair with her brows furrowed.

*Screech* We started hearing screeches all around us. We used light magic to light up this damned cavern completely, only to see something terrible. This whole cavern was only about three meters tall and a black liquid was flowing on the ceiling and on the ground. We saw how thousands of pairs of hands were creeping out of the ground and the ceiling.

There were three meters tall stone pillars in eve two meters in a perfect line, making this whole place creepier than it was necessary. Hiro used one of his minds to light up this cave permanently, only to see millions of similarly grotesque looking monsters standing around us in a circle.

We were completely encircled by them. They had white bodies, without jaws, they were also completely bald even on their heads. It was like the hairy ones were females while the millions encircling us were the males... We used our mind powers to explore this whole place. This cave continued on for millions of kilometers and we sensed billions of monsters.

"Fuck this shit!" Hiro said as she stepped on the ground and used earth magic like never before. The ground and the ceiling started trembling as he controlled the structure of the planet. He raised up the whole ceiling by at least a hundred meters and cleared out every stone pillar in our way.

A mortal would probably think that it was doomsday upon seeing such a scene. It was time to use our real strength and stop this child's play we did before. The first four realms were only warming ups. I took out my bow and Hiro took out his spear. Our energies started rotating in our bodies, while we both made clones of ourselves. Seeing this the demons around us nodded and then followed suit.

These carrion were at the sixth to the seventh stage, but the sheer number of them would be dangerous for everyone others than us. We had tough scales to protect our bodies so we had nothing to fear. We covered even our faces, just in case. Hiro swung his spear and a huge Hydra head flew out of his spear and moved sideways, thrashing the monsters in its way.

We have never truly used our abilities or our energies because we didn't have to. Seems like this is a place which lets us release our real potentials. All of Hiro's clones coiled six Hydra heads around themselves along with the original one. I've done the same just with Dragon heads. Since it was time to play seriously, we also covered our bodies in our energies completely.

On top of our scales, wings, tails, claws appeared which were made up of our energies. We were shining in green lights thanks to our full-body energy armors. We were like Sasuke's Susanoo from that anime series. This full-body technique of our was called Hydra's or Dragon's Descent in my case. Yes, we have used them before, but as ranged attacks.

Its original way to use was this, as melee weapons, with our bodies! Since I had only two clones, all eight of us charged forward into these endless hordes of monsters. The demons also followed after us. I kicked with my right leg, which extended into a long and thick powerful energy blade, cutting thousands of monsters into two halves.

Hiro thrust his spear forward, creating a fifty meters tall Hydra in the process. The energy Hydra rushed forward and blasted the monsters into pieces along with the ground. I swiped with my hands and the elementals automatically followed the lead of my body. What can I say? High-level cultivators were colorful when they fought...

I shot out a similar energy attack from my palms, except that mine was a dragon. It ran forward under my control as it was spouting flames, icicles, water blades, wind blades and every kind of elements towards its surroundings. The whole cavern was exploding from our abilities.

There were millions of monsters, but barely could any of them come any closer to us or our clones than ten meters. It was also time to finally use these Recovering Pills because we have never spent as much energy as now. I put at least five into my mouth as I felt my energy returning. I kept releasing fifty-meter high energy dragons crushing hundreds of thousands of these monsters without stopping.

Hiro created six energy heads out of his energy aura and while fighting with his hands and legs at the same time, he was also using those six heads to tear anything which came close to him into pieces. I spat out a mouthful of Chaos Bolt since my hands and legs were full... It had a diameter of thirty meters.

Upon crashing into the monster hordes, it exploded with a power which was way over those toys called atom bombs. A white light covered everything while the Chaos Bolt released its energy. Space was crushed upon contact as a huge hole appeared in this matter of reality.

Hundreds of thousands were sucked into it once again. Hiro released a terrifying roar which flew through the air and left havoc in its way. He used Space Breath. Another fifty kilometers long crack appeared in the space as the monsters were crushed like chickens in a meat grinder.

The foul creatures were being decimated by our powerful attacks. That black liquid has long ago disappeared as not even the ground could be found. Looking at our surroundings, we realized that our enemies were completely gone. We have killed everything. Hiro came next to me with his clones who were also covered in Hydra's Descent.

I put away my bow and pulled out my sword. This wasn't the time to use bows. What dungeon system, what levels?! We are going to crash and wreck this whole place! "Haa- ha, this was a satisfying round. I wonder what's on the next level, haha~" Hiro asked jokingly while slightly panting as the demons came closer.

"Remind me to never anger you..." Pazahir said with a slightly fearful face. After we felt our energies recover thanks to my pills, we moved toward the next level without waiting for anyone. We were more than enough with so many of us. The downside of more clones was the bigger energy expense. I too felt a tiny bit tired, but I didn't have any problem in particular, while Hiro was slightly panting.

Pazahir and the other demons followed after us. We didn't leave them with too much to do, so they were in quite good shapes. But underestimating us would be a great mistake. I stepped hard on the ground and used earth magic. The ground under me was crushed and a huge hole with a diameter of fifty meters appeared.

It went on for at least twenty kilometers before coming to an end. We jumped down and landed with a loud bang as the ground exploded under our meteor-like fall. As I stepped forward, I heard a cracking sound under my leg, only to see a skeleton. It wanted to grab onto my leg when I looked down, but I swung my thick energy tail on its body, completely crushing it.

Although it was at the eighth stage, but we had eleven point one Crypt, so crushing something that was weaker than us, was nothing for us. Hiro swung his arm in an arc, creating a ten meters tall fire blade with a width of five hundred meters. It swept through in front of us, lighting up the cavern which wasn't much bigger than the one before.

The skeletons were already climbing out of the ground although much less of them. Thanks to our continuous combat and energy expense, our Energy Conversion was progressing greatly. We had ninety-eight percent of our energies converted. I don't know why, but the World Energy was much thicker at this place.

Crushing the walls of the dungeons were originally impossible because it enjoyed the creator's protection. But an evil dungeon probably didn't enjoy that privilege, so if you were powerful enough, then you can calmly destroy the walls and boundaries.

This time as well, we laid waste to our enemies with our powerful attacks and skills. The poor demons barely had a chance to do something, even though we were supposed to 'help out', but we can't help it. We are similar in that, once we start doing something, we like doing it with our all and till the end.

It's a relatively rare aspect among humans, but Hiro was like that in the past too and after inheriting the instincts of a True Divine Beast, he became even more like that. Once we started doing something, there was no stop. No sleep for the wicked! But what can I say? We enjoyed crushing these shitty monsters and releasing our real strength.

And this is only the beginning. Once we start training our souls too at the fifth level, our strengths are only going to grow even more! We trod through this cavern as well and reached a little room at the end. It had a big, red crystal in the middle of it. Hiro sent in one of his clones and thrust with its spear into the core.

Suddenly an enormous amount of energy started swirling inside the air from outwards. It was sucking everything inside. The red core started cracking. The crack spread through its whole body. It didn't say a word since it didn't have a mind. It seems like these crazed dungeons used anything to kill their surroundings, even necromancy.

But there was something wrong... As the energy sucked in everything, all of our weapons, armors, and clothes started dissolving... "The fuck is this!?" Hiro shouted wrathfully with a red face. Our Binding Clock, Stallion of Unmaking, Jagged Belt of Cold and Hot also disappeared without a trace...

I was also angry, upon realizing it. Thankfully we had our battle forms, so we weren't naked, but our good treasures what we were hoarding all this time was gone!? Just like that!? What the fuck is wrong with this place!? Then we felt that pulling energy increasing more and more as many cracks started appearing on the dungeon core's surface.

"Run!" Hiro shouted, feeling that this was totally wrong. All of us flew into the air and tried to fly away, but it was for naught as it kept sucking us inside. Even though after finishing this cavern, we were able to convert ninety-five percent of our energies, we still weren't able to escape from this pulling force.

Hiro embraced my hips. We tried flying out of this damned pulling, but we couldn't. Suddenly it amplified many times for a moment, which was enough to pull all of us inside. There appeared a hole with a diameter of one meter. We flew through that hole into who knows where. Our death or something else? We didn't know.

But we didn't have to wait for long to know. We stood up from the ground and looked around us. It was completely dark everywhere and strangely enough, not even our eyes were able to see. We used our mind powers and tried to sense our surroundings, but we weren't able to. We couldn't fly either.

"Can you hear us?" I asked as I looked around into this nothingness. Only Hiro was touching my waist, which made me calm. "Yes, though I can't see or feel anything..." Fleudor answered and then Pazahir also followed after him, with the others in tow.

Suddenly a bright light shone on us and a huge maze appeared in front of us. This again!?!?! A screen appeared out of nowhere and what was the weirdest was that Morgan Ferrel was sitting on the other side of it, with a smirk on his face.

His naked and dark heart has finally come to light. We should have killed him...