33 The Crusade for the Flame

"The scorpion then stings the frog in the middle of the river, despite already telling that he wouldn't do it." The hooded rodent walked nonchalantly as she played with the dodecahedron device on her hand, keeping up the pace with her silent conversation partner. "The frog didn't know that the scorpion can live up to 2 days underwater and would eventually reach the shore~

"Still wearing his reckless egotism, the scorpion deemed his chaotic and non-altruistic nature as its 'Pledge of Survival', don't you think that's interesting~? Hmmm, Delamuion~"

Delamuion, the silver-haired man with obsidian black skin, remained walking forward in his track, not even batting an eye. His long red scarf fluttered in his trail, cautious of the surrounding unknown nature.

Meanwhile, the squirrel girl with a large crossbow behind the caravan of footsteps was on the verge of shaking. She uncomfortably huddled with her fluffy golden hair and tail while trying her best to not look up.

Because before entering this realm, they all have been put into an ultimatum to never look up by the hooded rodent.

"Say." With sour smiles growing eyebrows, the squirrel girl faced to the left where a hooded man holding his giant hulking doubled-edged sword kept his walking pace. "Do we really need to trust that Angravada lass? While I see little to no shady things in her words, I just can't help but to worry."

The hooded man glanced a little bit before straightening his pose and kept walking. "Is this one of the so-called trusty instincts from the Sanuyah Tribe?"

"Eeeh, us Sanuyahas don't really have that reliability of guts like the rumor makes it to be, you know? Most of the time, those so-called trusty hunch." The sanuyah girl did a quotation mark gesture with four of her fingers. "Are nothing but our stomach feeling bad due to nervousness."

"Well, that's simple then. Just trust that lass. Besides, you're still included in the list of brat in this group."

"Hey, hey! Who are you calling brat?? I scored the highest in the Multi-Capital Marksman Championship, just so you know! My bolt whooshed the stagnant wind without fail, just so you know! I can do seventeen trickshot in a row whenever I want to, just so you know!"

"Can you keep that down!???" angrily shouted at someone from the front, albeit in lower tone, just enough for the back row to hear it.

"Sorrryyyyy!!"

"Well then." The hooded man smirked. "If anything goes awry, may I let you guard my back?"

"Haish! That is one thing you shouldn't ask a Sanuyah!" The squirrel girl playfully clicked her tongue as she gestured her pointed index finger left and right. "In exchange, keep my back safe too!"

The hooded rodent hummed gleefully for some reason.

"Your group is quite a lively bunch, aren't they?"

"..." Delamuion remained silent. That was, until something clicked in his mind, bothering him as it wound up into doubt that seeks confirmation. Less of a confirmation, perhaps, as it was more of anything that can validate his goal. "Is the Untethered One truly here?"

"Of couuurrseeee~! The very same Untethered One, the very same Destructive One!" The hooded rodent giggled. "The very same entity that burned 40% of Parijaga Continent into ashes, the very one who also killed your mother under the gale of crimson fire~"

"..."

"You're boring, you know?"

Delamuion sighed. "So are you."

"AAAKH!??"

"You can't trick me, not even the ol' pops," said Delamuion, his gaze remained straight to the front.

"Yet the moment you heard the word Untethered One, you became more loyal than a dog~"

Without even acknowledging her attempt at belittling him, Delamuion spoke the words of his mind. "That thing you're holding… will that truly bait the Untethered One? As much as I'm assured that you're not the cowardly Angravada I used to know, I can't read you at all."

"Of course! Of couuurssee~! All we need is to arrive in our comfy destination where the wind formation will spread the wavelength much more efficiently! Just like poisoning the water canal, it will make whoever lives in this place feel nudged and angry~ Then! It is only a matter of time until our encounter with your target of vengeance!"

"..."

They kept on going to their destination in this alternate realm. But at some point, they began to notice something on the trees where they planned the path to get there.

Scribbles of unknown words to them, along with a rather intriguing illustration of a weird quasi-legged creature with a dorsal arm holding a torch accompanying every one of those mysterious unknown runes known as 'Alphabets' in primordial time.

The 32 manned group began to feel uncomfortable with all of the unknown imagery and drawing made by scratching the surface of trees. The hooded rodent assured the group that those childish yet eerie illustrations were the sign that they were on the right path, so they kept marching forward.

Throughout their journey, none of them looked up to what wass above. They all kept marching like vagrant strandings. Whatever the kind of gimmick obviously meant to drive them away, they pushed through the doubt and followed the words of the hooded rodent like she was their messiah.

Eventually, they reached a wide purple violet glade filled with flowers of unknown origin, The place reeks of strange miasma that could strangle a person anytime yet not, like a never ending suspense of uneasiness of the fact that things could go 100 and 0 anytime soon yet not and will never be.

In a rather open space like this, the hooded rodent made sure that all of them were told and commanded to lower their heads as much as they could. Or else the realm would become unstable and self destruct due to an observatory phenomenon that she made up on the spot.

"I'll be giving this to you~" The hooded rodent grinned ear to ear as she gave the dodecahedron device to Delamuion.

Immediately after, her whole body began to disperse into black mist.

A thick and illustrious mist, as if it was a rising living black ink with the air as the canvas.

"S-she!" The sanuyah girl was the first one to freak out. "She disappeared!"

The rest began to follow the chain reaction of doubt and panic. The hooded man with the large sword however, calmly approached Delamuion with a stoic flare.

"I let you trust her, Delamuion," said the hooded man with almost no inkling of fear nor anger. "Now that we know this is risky, I'm suggesting half of our group to go back and keep the portal from any tampering. Who knows what that imposter might be up to."

"... Commence the suggestion immediately."

The squirrel girl along with the rest 15 people were sent back to the portal, making sure that the main unit can go back safely. Meanwhile, the rest 16 personnel were put into a dilemmatic discussion, aside from Delamuion and the hooded man who were staying away from the group, talking privately to one and another.

"I know that we are the elite of the elite, but can we beat the Untethered One without our full force?" asked one of the staying men.

"Buffoon! Have you ever noticed what was going on?" said the armored woman with bunny ears beside him. "Our leader and vice leader are prompting 15 who are not related with the Untethered One to go back because this could be a trap. Keeping the gate from being tampered with is just an excuse, our vice leader simply wanted them to stay out of danger."

"That damned Angravada! If not for her good history in the guild, I would not trust her!"

"Fool"

"Buffoon!"

"W-what!?"

"That Angravada is an imposter!" The armored woman shook her head. "Three days ago, her whole air shifted almost instantly. It is scary that it's almost unnoticeable, in fact."

"Wait, so our task to hunt the Sakhta Dragons in this forest is true!?? I assumed that it was just a makeover after that rodent brat declared that she knew the location of the Untethered One, nobody told me about this!"

"What happened to the real Angravdada?"

"I'm afraid that she's already taken care of…"

"Gah! Then why didn't you tell us earlier, you mating-freak!"

"Fool!"

"Buffoon!"

The crowd calmed down, but in a much rather strange fashion.

"What now!???"

If one could even call that as calm.

"Haiya, we have been looking for hints for the Untethered One, only to meet with a dead end again and again." The armored woman frowned. "The fake Angravada is an unlikely bet, but it is the furthest we get into our crusade so far…"

"Yeah, not to mention, we found a hidden realm that is placed inside a strong deterrent formation. If not for that faker, not even a single soul might find it."

Amidst the inner despair and conflict, something was moving within the tall patches of flowers.

Suddenly, a towering blaze of red, black, and golden pillar emerged along with the flaming petals of the scattered flowers from a highly visible point in the range of 20 meters away from the group. The sheer size and sound of the abrupt gleam of holy flare were enough to catch everyone's attention almost immediately, not sparing a single sight.

And because of it, all of them managed to glimpse the horrifying truth that was lurking inside the fake sky.