Chapter 20: Dungeon: River Styx

"So are you saying we must cross a wide river with a dangerous current? Is that what you say?" Kaede asked Pimp while they were walking towards the border of the garden to the inner part of the Dungeon.

"Yup, plus do not disregard those onyros and goryo living in the water," Pimp reminds Kaede.

"Don't worry," Kaede answered, giving Pimp a wide smile.

Although Pimp doubts Kaede, he sets it aside. He hopes that this kid isn't like Takao.

"How many nights and days before we arrive at the River?" Kaede asked him.

"We're almost there. Few more walking, and we are there," Pimp told him.

"Alright. Let's continue to walk. I'm hoping we can make it to the other side of the river before sunset," Kaede said.

Exactly noon, Kaede and Pimp arrived at the edge of the river.

Unlike the normal river, this river in front of Kaede is black. It was so black that he couldn't even see his reflection.

"This is River Styx," Pimp said.

"You named it?"

"Yeah," Pimp answered Kaede.

Kaede looked around, hoping to find nice trees and some vines to create a raft. A raft will help them get to the other side of the river. But in Kaede's calculation, the river's current is dangerous. The raft might not make it. He has to make a strong one.

Kaede put his bag down to chop fine tree trunks using his Polearm. Six to seven trunks are enough to make a raft for a single rider. Thankfully, he found some thick vines and started creating his desired raft.

"Do you think the raft can survive?" Pimp questions him before strapping his backpack in front of him.

"It will, hopefully, until we can make it through the center, and I'll try to jump off the other side.

Pimp didn't talk and watched Kaede as he pushed the raft to the water and jumped on it. Kaede started to paddle.

Pimp, while watching him move, thinks that this kid must be strong. If not, the current has pushed them away. But seeing Kaede calmly paddling the current must be weak for him.

"Always watch around, boy. We might never see what is watching us," he reminded Kaede.

"Don't worry, and I'm on the watc-"

Kaede didn't have to change to finish what he was saying when a large Goryo, in bird form, snatched Kaede with Pimp tagging along.

"I Ttttoooollldd yyyoouu tooo watchh yyyour baccck!" Pimp shouted at him while Kaede smirked at him.

Kaede was about to take his Polearm off, but suddenly a massive size, another Goryo in crocodile form leaps into the river with its mouth open wide and bites the bird's head, dragging it down with Kaede and Pimp in its claw.

The crocodile retreated to the water with the bird and Kaede along.

"Kid! Do something!!" Pimp shouted, panicking.

Kaede took his Polearm and cut one of the bird's claws. The grip on them loosened a bit when the bird died. Kaede and Pimp inside his backpack were about to fall on the water, but Pimp opened the bag and gave him the light cloth.

"Use it as a parachute!"

Kaede nodded at him, and finally, the wind blew them off the river, making them land on the other side of the wide river.

"We were almost, almost didn't make it," Pimp said, rolling out of the bag, catching his breath.

"Your cloth helped us. I was about to do a suicide jump, but my calculation says that we will be a meter away from the other side," Kaede said.

"Come on, let's go. The commotion in the river will call the other goryo's attention. We need to find somewhere we can sleep tonight," Pimp said.

"Okay. Let's go. Hope in the bag," Kaede said before wrapping his Polearm again and hanging it on his back.

Kaede and Pimp started to walk again. After that incident, he thinks that he needs to be vigilant again. Kaede hasn't fought with any yurei for the last year as he was under training. The massive dog that once hunted him didn't kill it. It was killed by the one he was housing.

As Pimp was getting ready to make himself comfortable inside the bag, he accidentally touched Kaede's chest. And suddenly, he felt a sudden surge of power within him.

"What the hell is this energy?" Pimp whispered to himself. "This kid had this in his body? But why? Ugh!"

Pimp started to feel like he was burning from within. There is so much negative emotion in the energy that hits him at once.

"This can't be. Kaede's like the-" he didn't finish what he was about to say when he felt like someone was watching him.

His eyes widened when he saw a hooded figure facing him and probably staring at him.

"Don't stare at me. I hate it when someone stares at me. Do you want me to snatch your eyes out or cut you into pieces? Fuck off, shrimp."

It warned him, and Pimp cowardly took his hand from Kaede's chest.

Sweat forms on Pimp's forehead as he raises his head to look at Kaede, who is observing the surroundings.

"What on earth are you?" he asked him silently.

"You have been staring at me for quite a while now," Kaede asked him without looking at Pimp.

"Nothing. I'm just wondering what you are," he said.

"I have been told that I am a carrier, a special one," Kaede answered him.

"What? Do you even know what it means?" Pimp asks him, wondering.

In his mind, if Kaede is a carrier, why is he still alive? And Pimp agrees that he is a special carrier because what he sees inside him is not your average lump of ziels but a massive one. It was so immense that he was thinking about how it fits inside that boy's body, unless..

Pimp secretly looked at Kaede, who was currently walking.

"Unless the Ziels fit in a single soul and become one with the boy's soul, which is impossible. Carriers are vessels that are dead before being born. Impossible.."