Chapter 12 - Beauty

Olexia, still lying down on her back, reached out for something beside her head. She moved her hand around but it seemed what she was searching for wasn't there.

She opened her eyes and looked to where she was reaching out to. "Where my pho-," Olexia muttered and looked at the floor where she had been lying down with a surprised expression.

"Where am I?..." She muttered out again and looked around the building, noticing the demonic Peach floating above herself, and Jinny staring at the ceiling with Illy beside her.

Finally, she remembered where she was, and started thinking of yesterday's events, so much had happened in such a short amount of time. 

Before waking up she thought this whole world was just one long dream, with the abundance of crazy stuff in it, she thought it was completely logical that it was just a dream.

But now such a delusion no longer lingered in her mind, the life she had just a day ago no longer existed, at least for now.

Her only hope of returning to her old life was by becoming the best 'entertainer' and receiving the promised wish.

Olexia turned her head right at Peach above her. "How do I become the best entertainer?" Olexia asked with a serious tone.

"That's your first question right after waking up? Not anything about what we have planned for today or maybe what's for breakfast?" Peach replied with confusion.

"Just tell me." Olexia demanded an answer impatiently.

Peach sighed. "That's a question that I don't know the answer to." Peach answered.

"What do you mean you don't know the answer?? You're lying!" Olexia yelled out, not believing Peach didn't truly know the answer.

Jinny and Illy turned to look at Olexia.

"Relax, relax! Let me explain." Peach said nervously. "It really is the truth, I don't know... Every time this whole game happens the way the game progresses is different, I could tell you what we could expect but that doesn't mean that it would happen. But one thing I can tell you is that you'll be in this game for at least half a year." Peach explained, waiting for Olexia's reaction.

Olexia stayed silent for a few seconds and then she spoke. "Alright... So what's for breakfast?" Olexia asked cheerfully.

Peach looked at Olexia, a bit worried about how fast she switched up.

"We've prepared eggs and bacon for the both of you." Illy calmly noted.

Olexia and Jinny turned their heads towards Illy, their faces filled with confusion.

Olexia spoke. "How did you two even cook eggs and bacon?" She asked.

"That's a secret~." Illy replied in a teasing manner.

"Never mind that Olexia, Jinny, get up. We have some plans we need to discuss with the two of you." Peach announced

...

Jinny and Olexia both sat down at a table with food on it, not questioning how it got there.

They started eating and Peach started explaining. "Today the higher-tiered divine beings have conjured a large number of loot boxes, sixty to be exact, so that's around 1 loot box per 2 people in the game. And the two nearest loot boxes from here are also in the complete opposite direction from the other. So we'll be spitting up." Peach explained in a monotone voice.

"We're splitting up?! Why not just go grab them together?" Olexia asked loudly while chewing.

"I know it's hard to hear Olexia, but this way it would be most efficient to collect the loot boxes. Going together would only increase the risk of the loot boxes getting claimed by someone else." Illy added calmly.

"Are you okay with this Jinny?" Olexia asked and swallowed the food down.

"I trust Illy's judgement." Jinny replied.

Olexia sighed. "Fine."

...

Olexia and Jinny finished their breakfast and parted ways, hoping to reunite soon again, so for another time it's just Olexia and Peach.

In the sky, there were two suns almost completely opposite of each other, both at their sunrise stage.

Both of the bright suns caused the sky to take an almost completely orange colour, mixed in with some dark red and yellow.

After some time of just silent walking Peach decided to start a conversation. "So anything you wanna talk about while we're on our way? It's gonna be a few hours until we get there so we should probably find something to talk about."

"Hmm, I wanna ask why there's barely any living things in the area?" Olexia asked. "Yesterday when I first came here the world was way more chaotic than it is now." She added.

"Well, it's mostly because most of the monsters either stay away from other monsters' territory, or they hide away." Peach explained.

"So what? They're all just scared?" Olexia asked.

"Well yeah, that and they're just not that common in these city areas, there's a river that goes through a forest that pretty much leads right up to the loot box we're going for." Peach explained again. "There should be a pretty large wildlife in it. Maybe we'll get a chance to use up that 'Scroll of Submission' you got yesterday." He added, floating around Olexia's head.

"That's great..." Olexia looked up to the sky. "Has the sky always had two suns? The colour of the sky looks like someone took a piss in it." Olexia said out loud, not thinking not one bit about what she said.

Peach stayed silent for a few seconds taken aback by what Olexia said.

"Uh, where did that come from?.. But yeah, this solar system has two 'suns'. They orbit each other almost perfectly in one human year." Peach answered.

"Cool, cool..." Olexia added.

At this time a river could be seen in the distance, no longer than a kilometre from where Olexia and Peach were.

The terrain had a drastic change of the ruined city right into small grassy hills, and a thick forest right after the hills.

"So is that the river you were talking about?" Olexia asked, pointing right at the river.

"Yep, that's it. We should walk right by it, just so it's easier to see. The forest is pretty thick and the clearing created by the river would help." Peach explained.

Olexia nodded and they reached the river shortly after and then started going into the forest.

The atmosphere became much darker and just being in it gave a sense that you were being watched.

After following the river for about 20 minutes red blood appeared in it.

Olexia and Peach noticed it and immediately commented on it.

"Blood?" Olexia said.

"Yeah... I guess some wildlife is washing their food up ahead. We're going that way anyways so we'll check it out." Peach replied.

"You think it's a dragon?" Olexia asked in a joking manner with a goofy smile on her face.

"Don't be silly, finding a dragon in this forest is almost as hard as finding life in the sun." Peach replied.

"But it's not impossible right?" Olexia added.

Peach sighed. "Yep, you're right. It's not impossible..."

The river turned a corner and on the other side, the source of the blood was seen.

Some sort of mutated wolf with an extra pair of eyes and longer legs than usual was torn open and consumed by an equally unique creature.

Standing at least three meters tall, with an elongated and slender body resembling leaves, and six legs with sharp spines, two of which were holding the wolf down on the ground.

A large triangular head with two compound eyes, and a small mouth with a set of small teeth, tearing up the wolf-like monster.

And its most exciting feature, four slightly transparent, flower petals resembling wings.

The whole creature was beautiful and inspiring. Having streaks of pink and red coloring along its mostly white, green and brown.

A fierce creature with amazing fighting capabilities and seemingly no flaws.

As Olexia noticed the creature she was immediately taken aback because of how beautiful it was. "Oh my god... What is that? It's simply... amazing!" Olexia said loudly, almost yelling. Not taking her eyes off the creature.

"That is an elite devil's flower mantis. And a very fine example of beauty and strength at the same time." Peach replied, keeping his voice low.

However, the mantis heard Olexia talking and it turned its head towards her and Peach.

It spread its wings and stood upright, reaching a height of five meters.

"And it seems like it thinks we're its next pray..." Peach added in a serious tone, transforming into a long katana with a sharp orange blade and a green handle, and falling right into Olexia's hands.