Chapter 64: Chapter 61

Chapter 61

 

Night of Day 12 since entering the gnome’s warren; The Demon Realm

“What in the hell is the Demon realm supposed to be? Isn’t that this entire world?” I asked in stress while looking around. Something tells me I’m probably not going to like the answer. It looked like just like any other sandy beach except for the ruined moon.

We also can see a bit more with the moon, but not very much with limited range.

A beach huh...if we weren’t in danger, I would have wanted to enjoy it with Fox Girl and Sunghee.

“Save your questions for later. We have other things to worry about now,” Fox Girl said. She nodded at the cliffs overlooking the beach and pointed. She was intently studying something over there. Her ears were laid back like a cat’s when it was angry.

Does that mean…? Danger?

But what was it she’d seen?

“Yep we’re under attack, or will be very soon,” Fox Girl says.

“Huh? What do you mean by under attack? There’s nothing…” Sunghee then looks up.

When they are about thirty yards away I can finally get a look at them.

“Eh? Is that what I think it is?” Sunghee says trying to squint. She saw it first.

She pulls the dwarven war hammer from the back of the waist of her miniskirt. She’s giving it a few test swings to get a good feel for it until she feels satisfied.

Oh so that’s where she was hiding it…

Even as they say it, I can see what looks like dozens of small bat-like creatures flying straight at us. They seem small in the distance, but there’s no mistaking that they are headed this way. I even think they are bats, but as they get closer I can see they aren’t. They do resemble bats in that they are smaller than people and have bat-like wings, but it’s a bit different. They seem to be like the blend of what a human and a bat would look like if they crossed, and dark colored skin.

It’s a pathetic ugly looking creature with dark colored and wrinkled skin, with hateful faces and expressions of small bite size killers. They are something from nightmares come to life. Their eyes speak of cunning despite their small size, and they have overly large fangs and sharp jutting jaws.

Are they speaking to each other?

I can hear some kind of ‘chittering’ sounds among them with each other. Is that…they can communicate with each other?

“Are those…imps?” Sunghee guesses.

Fox nods, also pointing at them with the hand holding her knife. “I’ve seen these before. Don’t let them latch onto you. Even though they’re small, they are really dangerous because they swam and team up. They like to get a good group of like ten of them to pick people up and then carry you off and make you fall to death. Then they eat up the remains. Don’t ask how I know that.”

“I guess you’ve seen that happen before?” Sunghee raises an eyebrow.

“No problem. No problem. We’ll just crush these like the orcs right?” I mumble. I’m trying to psyche myself up but feel nervous. This is another creature I’ve never faced before. When it’s something I haven’t faced before that makes it scarier even though they are much smaller than the orcs. Being smaller actually has a lot of disadvantages too, since it’ll be harder to hit them and they move fast on top of it.

“Why imps though?” I can’t help but ask.

“They act as scouts for demons and daemonkin because they are fairly fast and expendable. Another reason they are liked for use as scouts is they are small enough to be easily bullied so they won’t have as much chance of trying to depose their master as other races. So it means we have already been found. See a smaller group of them is going the opposite way to report it to the imps’ leaders?” Sunghee points at a few specks in the distance.

“Demons and daemonkin?” I parrot after her. I’m worried about asking what that means. I’m way in over my head.

“Depose their leader? Is that what demons do?” I was surprised.

“That makes sense. If they are evil they probably don’t have a lot of loyalty for each other. Is that what you meant?” Sunghee states.

“I’ll explain that part later,” Fox says, waving us off like she was annoyed. She’s looking at the imps only. But despite looking annoyed I couldn’t help but notice she’d stepped in front of me in a protective manner.

Was that the slave collar working on her?

Somehow I’m glad to have Sunghee and Fox are here. It seems they are both really tough. I wonder how either of them were even caught if they are both this aware and this smart.

As the imps close I’m also feeling energy pour out of Fox Girl. Looking over I felt the hair on my neck rise as she’s pulled out some big huge death scythe taller than I am, made out of some kind of metallic liquid and pulsing energy. While holding it it’s also dripping liquid metal at the same time, off a blade that’s nearly four feet long. It throws off sparks too while she’s holding it so we can’t stand too close to her. It’s very eerie and doesn’t feel like it belongs in this world of solid physics.

What a strange weapon? Is it heavy? Or did she alter it to be anti-heavy?

But I can feel how deadly it is, even from over here. There’s a feeling like static electricity coming from it too.

“What the freak is that?” Sunghee asks with wide eyes. If she asks it must be weird because she’s been in this world longer than I have.

“Oh good I’m not the only one who has no clue what’s going on,” I said.

“Don’t worry about that. What kind of formation do you think we should use?” Fox asks me.

“Fox, you and me in front guarding Shun,” Sunghee orders.

I was surprised at her selflessness.

Fox ignores her again to my surprise. “Is that what you want Shun?” she asked.

“Shouldn’t I…?” I started.

“But she and I have more combat experience than you do,” Sunghee argued calmly.

“Yeah, that’s probably the best,” I said humbly. Sunghee has seen a lot of working with teams, while Fox is good but lacks the ability to do teamwork.

To my surprise Fox Girl complies, but only after I confirm it. I feel shocked seeing them move so quickly.

“Charge!” Sunghee says.

I’m surprised. “What?! Why? I don’t want to charge! Charging is reckless!”

This doesn’t make any sense.

“It’s harder for the imps to latch onto moving targets, because they are diving from the air and use movement based coordinated attacks in teams. Notice they only use their own long nailed claws for weapons? They like to grab onto prey and they are small enough they can’t use weapons of human sized beings. So if we stay running we have a higher chance to live,” Fox Girl huffs. She makes sure I stay behind her, even barking orders at me from time to time when I get too far or when I take some wrong movement patterns.

“Don’t move in straight lines, it makes a predictable pattern for them to follow,” Sunghee adds.

“Ah, that’s a pretty good idea. Are you OK with that too Shun?” Fox asked.

“I like it. If they are in teams and coordinating they’d have to look for a predictable line for us to go in. I think it could throw them off,” I said. But even though I said that, Fox was as smart as I was probably. She must have already known that.

“Try to find tree cover. They aren’t good at diving through trees because the leaves and branches act as a natural barrier,” Sunghee says.

“Uh, is that what you want Shun?” Fox asks.

“Sounds better than being in the open. But if we are in like heavy tree cover it will be hard for us to see. We’ll need your Fox senses to guide us,” I said.

I’m staying with the girls and surprised when both of them are cutting down imps like they are flies. But because there are so many of them I’m still plenty worried. The remaining population of them is still pretty large and still heading in our direction. They seem to gather in clouds similar to how wasps and bees move. I catch a few of them seem to have really small knives taken from humans, but on their tiny bodies they seem more like short swords of some kind.

We’re trying to go inland, but there are no large clumps of trees anywhere near us. We used one clump that was small to avoid a coordinated dive but after that we had to keep moving and look for the next best thing. The best thing we can get so far is a cliff edge not too far away which we start heading towards.

It’s surprising to see both of them work well together. Sunghee’s war hammer smashes one’s face and she stabs another easily with the knife. Then her backhand swing takes out two at once. She has good arm dexterity and eye coordination in meeting where they are trying to slip past her defenses.

Beside her Fox girl only has to swing once and somehow the energy crackles an area effect in the air. Immediately a half dozen of them are killed. It’s so cheaty to have a weapon like that. She barely even has to aim. Even so, she has a careful eye on what’s going on.

I’m a bit jealous.

We keep charging, trying to slip under them and confuse their flying pattern, but a few slip past them. It’s the ones that slip past that we have to worry about. They try to grab my arms and get past the swinging range of my axe so I kicked one in the face and then swung the axe into another. It’s killed quickly and then I have to swing quickly while somehow trying to run with the other two girls.

They make it look easily but I’m striking out. I miss a few times because they move quickly with the smaller bodies they have. It turns out running while fighting is extraordinarily difficult both for stamina and coordination. I’ve never tried something like this before either so I feel uncoordinated with it.

Still after another half a minute I’ve killed another imp and held two more at bay from grabbing me. I can dodge pretty good though, so I’m staying alive and avoiding getting hit, but that’s also thanks to all the hell training Fox Girl had forced onto me earlier.

“Yeargghhk!” I screeched when one of the little fuckers bit me. Their bites hurt like big bee stings. I smashed its face in with the axe head while he was laughing at me.

Without realizing it I’d distracted the other two. I’d have to be more careful, since the slave collars compel them to worry about me.

That’s when I realize that I think Fox Girl’s such an awesome friend. It’s like a friend that likes to gripe but is always solid. Of course…she does want to ditch me still…for her freedom. I’d have to watch for stuff like that. Does it mean I’d have to ask Sunghee to divert her attention from that?

I’d figure that part out later.

I take a few more swings at imps and narrowly miss one going for my eyes. They don’t fly as good as birds so it prevents them from doing rapid dive attacks on us but that doesn’t mean they won’t try. Sometimes we have to roll away from them.

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The thought of almost losing my eye scares the crap out of me. I hate this place. My heartbeat goes up as my stress increases.

“Watch out they love to gouge eyes out or go for a vital spot when they have a chance,” Fox warns me. Of course it’s too late to say that after I learn that on my own. I do get a cut on my forehead from its long nails though.

Forehead cuts bleed a lot. I have to keep wiping it on my sleeve. I can’t stop here to heal it either since we have to stay moving to avoid getting swarmed.

“Ouch!”

Sunghee by this time has killed nearly two dozen. I’m in awe. Turns out she’s not a low rank adventurer. How else could she have managed, something like that? She must have been mid-to-high or high rank when she was captured and her skills are still in her mind, flowing out easily. She’s an absolute smooth and fluid killing machine. She also makes the dual wield skill look like an elegant dance. Her timing is that she leads with the longer weapon, but has a clever timing on the offhand weapon to protect herself with the long dagger. In this way it can be used either to parry or add additional strikes. She’s able to do it smoothly while still being able to dodge whenever needed.

My worry of her losing her skills isn’t necessary to think about anymore?

It’s really interesting to watch her move like a dancer. I wish I’d had more time to do so, but have to keep an eye on the imps. But still she has to keep her concentration and can’t look after me every minute.

I’m brought back to reality when Fox girl suddenly runs behind me and cuts off a dozen imps that were sneaking up on us and me specifically. The energy weapon pulses and I hear the imps dying. But it reminds us we have to be more guarded. We decide to switch our formation.

For now we then reverse the order, with Fox Girl leading, then me, and then Sunghee behind us acting as rear guard. We have to do it this way because the imps are so clever. We’re also trying to move in a different direction of where the imps came from.

I hear and feel Fox Girl’s energy weapon pulse again. More of them die.

It’s getting easier to fight at night too. The moon here seems to be brighter now. But why?

We keep going, trying to move up the hill face with its surrounding cliffs to get away from the beach area. It seems the beach area is too open.

But I noticed something else as we’re moving. The imps’ bodies are dissolving when they die.

“What? That’s weird,” I point it out to the others.

“Of course. We’re not exactly in the normal world in a way. We’re like in a sub-realm connected to it,” Sunghee says.

“Sub realm? So that doesn’t explain why the bodies dissolve,” I said.

“The imps are demonic beings and have demon blood in them. Plus we’re in a sub-realm that is made from the same stuff as a dungeon, even though it looks like a whole complete world. But it isn’t a complete world, it’s like the half finished remains of a world that the demons came from when they their asteroid crashed into this one. That’s why you weren’t sure you were even looking at the moon when it was up in the sky. You saw it as it was breaking apart in mid collision. To survive they melded parts from their world into this one and froze it in space time, but not until after the original guardian spirits of this world met together to curse them,” Fox Girl says while huffing and swinging like its cake.

“That’s hard to take, even for me having lived here so long,” Sunghee frowned.

Fox shrugs. “It’s the truth, that’s the most important part.”

“I guess that’s why people say the truth hurts, huh?” Sunghee said in response.

If I weren’t so busy fighting I’d think Fox Girl also looks hot in a school uniform; but not as hot as a girl in a school uniform with the front wide open and her model quality swollen chest showing.

I wish I could fight as good as her and Sunghee. They are so good and so deft and agile that it makes me look like a beginner. I feel very low.

But I remind myself it’s a good chance to have good mentor-ship to grow well. People who do well had good teachers starting out.

“So that’s why the moon looks half-ruined?” I guessed.

“Correct. What you see of the half ruined moon with all its thousands of asteroid like particles and crystal tendrils is what it looked like when it was crashing into this planet. But the demons banded together with their thirteen princes and used all their pooled energy to freeze the event and meld the two things into part of this world, hidden in layers, much like a dream state. So that and the curse interacting…their bodies melt when they are killed,” she explained.

“So does that have anything to do with the other two moons in the normal part of this world?” Sunghee asks.

“Nope, at least not that I know of,” Fox said simply.

Sunghee killed a shit ton more imps while Fox Girl kept explaining it. I’m shocked by how she does it like she’s a one person army…dang…I better not make her mad. I try to follow right behind both of them since it’s like the only way to avoid being swept away. Even Akira I think would have been killed or eventually picked off.

“So if what you are saying is true then the moon or big asteroid they came from was once around its own planet right?” I asked.

“Haven’t you wondered why this world is so beautiful, and so deceptive? Your own bodies are changed when you got here,” Fox Girl explained.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, the demons invaded this world because it was once a paradise. It wasn’t just a normal world like your Earth, it was beyond that by quite a bit. It was a higher level paradise planet of closer to a celestial existence. If the beauty and presence of your Earth was like the moon, then this planet would be like a Jupiter size planet in terms of even more beauty and power. Humans and creatures that come to this planet are changed when they are affected by its magic. Their bodies are made more beautiful, more strong, and structured. You age better here, and you grow better too in your abilities and strengths. Did you wonder why your skin never got acne and always healed up perfectly?” Fox Girl keeps shredding more imps while we move.

“Ah, I had wondered about that,” Sunghee said, realizing it. “I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want people to remember I used to have skin eczema sometimes.”

“Really?” looking at her and hearing her saying it was like a banker saying he was poor. Fox smirked too hearing it.

Sunghee shrugged. “What? What did I say? It’s true!” she reaffirmed.

“You don’t look like anyone who has ever had skin problems,” I stated flatly.

Since the imps are less than a third of our height I wonder why they won’t stop coming at us. It’s like we’re feeding them into a machine to get chewed up. They don’t stand a chance against Sunghee alone, let alone both of them together. But still they don’t even act scared…

“It’s interesting. So if this planet changes people then we were all changed when our spirits were somehow…like grounded and anchored into this world?” I asked Fox.

“That’s correct. Remember the saying Paradise of the Gods? That’s this world,” She nodded. Part of what she said we don’t understand though. I made it a note to ask her again later.

“Eh? I wondered about that…I didn’t notice it. But I kept thinking how everyone looked healthier on this planet somehow,” I said remembering all the kids that were lumped with me into this world. Plus it explained how they ended up with jobs.

“This is my first time hearing the full explanation too,” Sunghee says. “I suspected as much though. But isn’t there some drawbacks?”

Uh oh…side effects?

Fox Girl chuckles, “So basically we’re all benefiting from a celestial mana rich world that has been polluted by demons. Because it’s so richly abundant in growth promoting resources and magic it’s now become a planet of near eternal warfare as well. But if you survive you will look and age a step above what normal humans look like and be like. It’ll be like you are an evolved human.”

“I always wondered why people looked so good here…now I know why,” Sunghee said, cutting down an imp.

“So does that mean there’s no illness or disease here?” I asked.

Fox Girl’s eyes sparkled. “Ah, now you are really thinking. Originally no, there wasn’t any illness or disease on this world. But the demons brought that into this world as part of their trying to weaken the people living here. Death can and does happen here like on every planet. But in some ways the health potential of all people is higher in this world than in your original world.”

Dang.

So there is illness and disease too…

“Wish there was some loot. If we were able to earn money cutting these things down maybe we could buy you both some clothes later,” I chuckle.

“Oh and the belongings and the loot from those imps is being put in the demon box even while we kill them too,” Fox chuckles.

“Eh? Free loot?” I was intrigued a bit until they reminded me we had to fight with our lives on the line to get it. That would have been good news also except for the fact that there seems to be no end of them. I thought there would be less imps after awhile. I was clearly wrong.

It seems like there were hundreds of them flying around now. They just weren’t near us.

“So if they dissolve when they die, how do they eat each other?” I asked.

“Normally the loot would fall on the ground and there would be stuff like valuables and imp meat for example. But since you have a magic item box it’s getting sucked right into it. A lot of demons can feed off each others energy too while they are suffering,” she said.

“But will people see the loot not on the ground?” I guessed aloud.

“I suppose people might notice something like that though,” Sunghee says carefully.

“If they know what to look for they might,” Fox shrugs. “Hopefully they won’t.” She didn’t look that confident when she said it. Apparently foxes don’t know everything after all.

“But normal monsters in the normal parts of the world won’t dissolve. I’ve seen it. Why is that?” I ask trying to figure it out.

“Correct. Areas untouched by dungeon magic and non-demon based organisms will normally not dissolve. Pocket dimensions like this one, even though its unnaturally big essentially are functioning like a big dungeon in how bodies melt when they die,” she adds.

“So are dungeons are just like parts of this demon realm then?” I asked.

“Correct, sort of. The demon realm is trying to take root and grow and trying to take over this world with its own ‘world mana’ source taking over the original mana source of the planet. So it’s trying to send out roots like a strong tree grows roots into different parts of the world like arteries and veins. At some point these tendrils emerge overnight as dungeons trying to swallow up even large cities. Because it wants to take over this world, the first and most noticeable way of doing this is to supplant the rightful living organisms that truly belong to this planet; in other words, its intelligent and self-conscious people and demi-humans, not just humans. It’s hoping to have so many roots and have them grow so big that the real world will become a layer under this one, instead of the other way around,” Fox is really upset while explaining it this way to us.

“I didn’t know that either. I just knew people seemed upset whenever a new dungeon was spawned. It seems like people know it’s really bad but don’t know why,” Sunghee says.

“True. So that’s why this world promotes adventuring and jobs and job licenses so much. They are trying to stop the demons from winning and taking over this world,” Fox Girl says.

“Is it really that bad?” I ask, chopping at an imp. Because the other two are so efficient I haven’t had to cut very many of them down.

“Well right now the demons are winning. But that’s a pretty well kept secret. But some people can tell something is off when a whole town disappears off the trade maps. Not a lot of them grow in their places either, since it takes a lot of time to build a town up from scratch. Certain lands and kingdoms are doing better than others. The longer a dungeon survives then the longer and bigger it grows not just in how big the floors are but also in how many floors there are too. Eventually a part of it could theoretically grow so big it looks almost like it’s a normal part of the world like this beach area,” she says eerily.

It’s also weird that this beach area is not only part of the demon realm but looks so peaceful. If she hadn’t told me that and if I hadn’t seen the imps I might have decided to rest and make a picnic area here. Then I would have been killed in my sleep.

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