Chapter 4: The Forest

As I exited the classroom I immediately went to the forest but it didn't go as smoothly as we thought as I was stopped by Emilia.

"Lexus!" Emilia called as she, Diablo and Larissa stood at the exit of the building waiting for me and Eris.

"Shit." I mumbled to myself. "Emilia! How long were you waiting?"

"Master." Diablo said as he bowed to me.

"Yeah, you can stop that."

"You mean it? What will be of our relationship then?"

"In that case, we'll be friends."

"Friends? In my whole life, I've never known what it is because I-"

"You can finish your monologue later." I said, interrupting Diablo.

"I will be the best friend I can." Diablo said with a bow.

"You can stop bowing now." I said as Diablo raised his head. "Does he need me to tell him what to do? I mean he tried to fight me on the first day." I thought as Emilia and Diablo then started an argument on who is a better friend. "Guys stop." I stop as I tried to stop their bickering. I then looked towards Eris, who was still standing near the entrance of the building, signalling for help.

"Stop or I'll kill both of you."

Immediately, Diablo and Emilia stopped their "argument".

"It seems they fear Eris," I thought, "What would happen if use my full power? Let me see, as an experiment to see their capabilities. I'll just reset this world if anything goes wrong."

I looked at Emilia and she stared back with a smile. The sky then grew dark and the sky became cloudy. The sun's light could not overcome the darkness. You would expect everyone to be in shock or at least the majority of the students screaming, crying or running around like a normal catastrophic event however, I caused this event. No one moved, no one talked and no one screamed. I could feel the absolute fear of everyone around me. Their hearts shook with terror and their souls trembled with it too. Then, my friends' attention went to me and as soon as they did...they collapsed. They held their hearts tight as they crawled on the floor like ants. Soon all forms of life decayed on the planet and this reached multiple universes, then continued for yottaverses then finally...multiple otheoses. This happened in only a matter of seconds after everyone collapsed. I floated in the cosmos as the only life around me was a few googol gigasperics away.

"I'm never doing that again." I said to myself as I snapped and everything restarted.

It reset.

Almost as if it never happened.

My friends were now in front of me as if they never died.

"Sorry something came up, there's something me and Eris need to do related to the work in class. See you guys soon!" I said as Eris and I took our leave.

"Bye!" Emilia said as we left their sight after taking a turn at the street where there were multiple buildings.

"What a weak lie."

"It worked Eris, that's the only thing we should look at."

"I guess."

In this world, ranks are determined by your catastrophic capability and the thing I did before, if that was my full power meaning that was my limit on destructive ability then I would be a Complex Apostle rank however, this was less than 1% of my true capabilities and even with all my strength and power, I am still weaker than Levantes.

We walked towards the forest as the sky grew dark.

"Will there be a storm?" Eris asked, noticing the dark, cloudy sky.

"This forest heightens the abilities of anyone who has dark magic and weakens anyone who has light magic."

"Does that include the others?"

"Yeah, dark magic includes Blood, Shadow, Dark, Lunar, Hallow, Destruction and Void while light magic includes: Light, Solar and Creation."

"So you'll be even stronger then?"

"Only by a thousand-"

At that moment, someone attacked with a beam made from void magic, however, I erased it using anti-magic by snapping my fingers.

"Anti-magic." Eris said, surprised but she didn't show it.

"Who goes there?" Someone said, lurking in the trees.

I quickly elbowed Eris, telling her that she should reveal herself while I stay unknown.

"Eris Dryadilas, a student attending Andartos Academia."

"And who is the man standing next to you?"

"My brother, Lumiere Dryadilas." Eris quickly said, trying to lower the mysterious person's suspicion.

We then heard the sudden crunch of leaves behind us. Without any hesitation, we looked towards the sound to see a girl.

"Lexus?" She whispered to herself but loud enough for us to hear.

I immediately recognised the girl: her black and red hair and purple eyes didn't change since back then. One of the only people I could trust and one of the people who once died next to me now stands before me.

"Lambda?" I responded.

"It is you, Lexus. Lexus Novel Arnoux, how've you been?"

"I've been alright. I joined the school yesterday."

"That's nice." She said as the sky then became clear. No rain, no thunder and no lightning.

"You told me that you would come to me whenever I called your name but you didn't."

"That's not my fault, I thought you were dead after that big guy came, after that, I've been on the run ever since."

"Anyone gonna fill me in?" Eris said with her arms crossed as she waited, patiently and annoyed.

"Oh right... Eris meet Lambda Alma Laurier, Lambda meets Eris Dryadilas."

"Oh, I see...wait...she's not-"

"Yeah, she is."

"Hi there Eris!"

"Hi?" Eris said confused by the sudden change in personality from the girl who she felt had many layers of malice towards her.

"What were you doing here for so long?" I asked.

"Oh...I got lost and I ended up here." She replied with an awkward smile.

"How does that even work?"

My line of thought was mainly trying to figure out how a girl the age of about thirteen, ends up in a whole different otheos far from where she was originally. I also had a theory that she wasn't here by coincidence and someone is trying to plan something.

"I don't know. It just did."

"Can we carry on with what we came here for." Eris said, annoyed.

"Yeah. I'm sure that guy's still waiting." I said as we ventured onwards into the forest.

As we walked through the forest we noticed the sky got dark but we also knew this wasn't due to Lambda. It was because of the creatures that reside in the forest.

There's a reason why no one comes to the forest even though it is enriched with mana. The reason being of the beings that live in the forest. No mere creatures as well. The forest was large and encrusted with mana so there was an absolute guarantee that you will find one even if you just step foot in the forest.

"That guy's probably dying just from the fear." I thought. "Wait a minute."

We walked for about more than a minute and by our speed, we should have met around ten of them already, however, we haven't. The time we have spent here and not being attacked or approached by the creatures of the forest should be a record. This forest isn't even something that would be approached by a dare, yet we are here, walking in the forest while not even one creature has been seen nor heard.

"This isn't normal." I said, which alarmed both Lambda and Eris.

"What do you mean?" Eris said as she tried to keep her fear contained.

"We haven't seen any yet." Lambda said as she watched the darkness ahead.

"Eris, do you have Cold Immunity and Night Vision?" I asked, knowing the dangers ahead.

"Yeah." Eris replied.

"Well that's good then, you have a chance of surviving."

"Wait a minute! How strong are those beasts?!" Eris said, shocked, after realising the chances of dying and survival.

"At the minimum...about Divine."

"WHAT!" Eris exclaimed.

Divine beasts are capable of destroying whole realms and the creatures here are at least higher than that. Divine beasts transcend the concept of dimensionality like Awakened beings however, these beasts can affect anyone from anywhere as long as they are in the same world meaning if you are in another world or the Endless Sea, then you have a chance against these. No one thinks of how powerful these creatures are. The highest class a beast in this forest has reached the class of Akyros. Eris is the only one I am worried for as she doesn't even have a percentage of Lambda's power.

This forest is the same size as an otheos and the planet that this school is on is about the same size as three otheoses. An average otheos is around 450EPU in diameter and this school is around 1,350EPU.

Considering the amount of mana in this forest coupled with its immense size, there's no reason why magical beasts of this level would not live here but why have we not met a single one? The only explanation for this is that they sensed my mana and Lambda's but it isn't enough for them to be that afraid. They would only be afraid of Primordials but Tartarus allowed them to live as long as they would not exit the forest. It's not normal for them to be like this. I've lost about 99% of my original power so I am just about higher than High Complex Akyros so someone like me would be easy to kill because to them I'm about the same strength as an Omni class, so why do they hide themselves?

Lambda is the only explanation now. She is a Low Complex Archon rank transcending everything below it. Everything below it seems like fiction to her yet she still views me as an equal almost forgetting my current state. A normal being of that level would have so much pride they wouldn't even want to be seen with someone lower than them. She truly is a mystery.

"Lexus, so you remember-"

"Quiet." I said as we all stopped.

"Oh shit." I thought as I realised the reason. "Whatever you do, do not look up or around." I whispered as we then continued to walk through the forest. "They're on top and around." I said to myself now realising what they were doing.

We continued to walk slowly through the forest as I tried to make a few plans all with backups.

"My word magic doesn't work against creatures who rank higher than me so I can't do that. I could leave Lambda to deal with them and get that guy to us with my word magic then after Lambda kills them we'll continue with our original plan," I thought to myself, planning for our survival, "Yeah, that seems about right."

"What's the plan?" Lambda asked knowing that I would already have thought up a plan in the time that we walked.

"You're gonna kill them." I replied as I continued to walk so the creatures would not be sceptical about our behaviour.

"Okay then." She said as she snapped her fingers.

The snap of her fingers killed some of the creatures as she amplified the sound of the snap. Creatures dropped from the trees landing on the grass floor with a thud.

"You planned it out so perfectly." Eris said, surprised that not even one creature landed near us.

"I guess I got three stars this time." I said, expressing my satisfaction with the perfection of my plan.

"That wasn't it was it." Lambda said, looking back at me while creatures continued to fall from the trees.

"Obviously not. In about ten seconds tilt your head to the right."

Lambda and Eris obeyed as they tilted their heads. A large tree came flying towards us but because they tilted their heads, the tree missed and hit multiple other trees in its direction like a bullet.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Lambda, do you still have that crystal I have you?"

"Yeah." She said showing a purple crystal she got out of her pocket. "For what."

"I need it."

Instantly she gave the crystal to my hand and I cracked it as soon as she gave it. The shards of the blue crystal were absorbed by me. I felt the sudden increase in my magical ability.

"Yes. Akyros rank." I said to myself as I felt the power surge through my veins. "All but one, die." I said as the grass now became a floor of dead creatures.

"How much of your true power did that crystal hold?" Eris asked.

"About 1%."

"There's no way you're weaker than Levantes then."

"Wait how did you know?"

"Telepathy. Sorry for using it on you without permission."

"It's okay. Trust me when I say, Levantes is more than he seems. You haven't seen his true abilities."

"That has to be a lie. So what you're trying to say is that even though he hid his true power he was one of the strongest beings in existence?"

"Exactly."

"How do you know Levantes?"

"We were childhood friends." Lambda said. Lambda said this in a way of almost saying 'Well in a way'.

"Both of you?"

"Yeah." I said.

"I just remembered, Laurier, that's the family of Asura." Eris said, now in absolute dismay after meeting one of the rare Asura.

"Yup." Lambda said as she smiled at Eris.

"What about you Lexus?"

"We were just good friends." I said but inside I said 'Well in a way'.

Our conversation came to an end as we heard the crunch of bones becoming closer and closer to us.

"Who's there?" Eris asked as the crunch of bones didn't stop but came closer.

"It's not going to answer you, idiot. It's a bloody beast, not a human." I said, disappointed in Eris's common sense.

"Mother." The creature said.

We then heard it again but it was closer. Now every time the creature spoke the sound grew closer.

"A DWARF!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I small a small creature hiding behind a tree.

"Mama."

"It's not a dwarf you stupid demon, it's a child." Lambda said to me, disappointed in my common sense now.

The child was rubbing its eye as it called out to its mother.

"I think it's lost."

"Well no shit Lambda."

"Don't speak like that, there's a child." Lambda whispered to me in an angry tone.

As Lambda grew closer to the child, so did the suspense as I watched thinking about what would unfold.

"Mama!" The child squealed and jumped onto Lambda.

"Lambda, quick question, what the hell were you doing for so long in a dark forest?"

"Nurturing this kid I think." Eris said, agreeing to what I said.

"IT'S NOT MINE-"

The child then started to cry.

"Wait a minute." I said as the child stopped crying, "Levantes said something about this. He showed me this manga and said that this would happen to me one day and this scene right here seems too much like the scene he showed me. If what I think this is then right about now he should say-" My thoughts were interrupted by the child, who said something that stopped my heart.

"Papa." The kid said with a radiant smile as he caught me looking at him. He then jumped on me.

"Oi, oi, oi, I'm not your father."

"Papa!"

"So let me get this straight, you and you are this kid's parents and I'm just the third wheel interrupting a family day out?"

"You've got it wrong!" Lambda and I said in sync, annoyed.

"I am now a father with a child I don't even know while I still attend school. What the f**k has this turned out to be." I said to myself as I watched the child's radiant smile slowly warm me up inside.

I looked at the child. He had dark black and red hair with gold eyes. The child was no taller than a six-year-old but I could sense the immense mana emitting from him.

"He looks so much like you two as well." Eris said as she let out a small laugh but we couldn't deny it.

"Why is plot armour not working now?" I said as I cried inside.

"I guess we have to look after him for the time being."

"I guess we do." Lambda said, accepting her fate. "Does that mean...we have to, you know...g-g-get m-m-m-married?" Lambda said as she tried to look away from my face while blushing.

"We don't have to go there, it's not our kid." I said as I tried to remove the awkward atmosphere. "I almost forgot, child, what's your name?"

"Name?" The child replied as if he never heard of the term.

"Do you not have one?" Lambda said as she knelt to the child.

"No." The child replied as I held his hand.

"Well, then we'll have to name him. Eris?" Lambda said as she looked at Eris expecting an answer.

"Well I have a suggestion."