PREVIOUSLY
I sat up, overwhelmed. "Holy shit."
Raegis just burped but I could feel that she was raring to go, like her energy was full and she needed to do something to release it. I was of the same but this was where our road split, well at least for now.
"Raegis," I started. "It's time."
I didn't have to say anything anymore. Raegis nodded her head, and growled at the [Gate Of Steel] as she summoned forth an aura of steel. The Old Willow shook furiously at that, before a portal began to open in it's trunk.
I took one last look at Raegis and said, "Whatever you do, just make sure to come back, alive."
Giving her one last pet, I turned my back to her and said, "I'll be around the vicinity, hunting for some more meat before you come back. Hm, I'm thinking of making something fried, rich with oil and fat, huh?"
I could hear her salivating. Taking one last look at Raegis, I put up the most sincere expression with my eyes and said, "Good luck."
"Aye!"
And, then we split ways.
***
Elm wielded the stick with the glowing lichen like it was a torch, holding it in front of her and the little talking dragon pet she had found along the way, so the eerie green eldritch light illuminated their path through the dark paths of the Woods.
Only a day had passed and yet, she had already arrived at the deeper parts of the Woods, and the monsters had definitely gotten stronger. That green lizard-golem thing was pretty strong, even by Elm's standards, and it called itself something like the Earth Dragon King or something. It was pretty annoying trying to get past the big lizard since it had control of that area of the woods, but after taking out the Holy Sword, a couple swings and the big lizard was gone.
Elm' Holy Sword was strong in it's unreleased form, and in it's released form, it was beyond strong, worthy of it's name as the strongest blade in creation. But, she was still far from being able to use the Holy Sword in it's unreleased form.
Elm scanned her surroundings. She appeared to be in some sort of ruins, of a lost civilization ages ago even with her incarnated memories, she had no idea what this city was, or how it even came to be, but she was sure of one thing.
It contained magic, mana and everything the elves gloated over and yet, every corner of the road, there was something that told of the city's hatred over the elves, or pointy-eared bastards as one scribble on the walls read out through her universal translation. Another perk of her constitution as one of the three singularities in existance.
She had just entered the city, and with her far-sight, Elm was able to see that the north-side of the city appeared to be some sort of religious or spiritual quarter, as every block in the hexagonal grid seemed to contain a temple or building meant for a place of worship. Each one had a small statue set into an alcove above the entrance archways.
It was of a maugrim holding an ornate blacksmith hammer in one hand and what appeared to be a sword in the other. Shafts of blue light emanating from the lichen above illuminated this quarter, and the blue light reflected off the diamonds in such a way to suggest that these temples and the placement of the alcoves were designed this way, to catch the light.
Elm saw what looked like runic markings below the figure. It read out 'Here lied the first and last king of the Hidden Woods, Dainslef the Great.'
"Looks like some sort of hero? Or, maybe a deity?" Pochi said, floating around the statue with interest. "Nah, it looks a little too shabby to be that of a deity. More like, if I was one of them arrogant pricks up high, I'd be pretty pissed if someone built me such a shitty maugrem."
Elm just ignored the floating, talking serpent. Oh, she knew it was a bad choice to have saved the flying, little bugger.
Pochi floated back over to the Celestial Hero. "Perhaps it's a hero, just like you, oh singularity."
"But of course, it's definitely not as strong as you." The adorable little serpent hissed, but in a thankful manner rather than a venomous one. "Again, thanks a lot for saving my scaly butt there, singularity. If you hadn't saved me, I would have been sashimi right there and then."
Pochi hissed, this time, a venomous one. "Oh, if I ever meet that stinky-ass gorilla again, it's on sight."
Elm stopped, and so Pochi stopped as well.
"Is there something wrong, dear singularity?" Pochi asked, tilting it's little serpentine head.
Elm deadpanned at the talking, floating serpent. ". . .You talk a lot."
Pochi burst out laughing, or more like, giggled at that. "Well, of course, you'd say that, dear singularity. A lot of my friends said that about me back when I was a human."
"So you say," Elm said before continuing to walk north. Her instincts told her that she would find something that would help her in her travel, over there.
"Really, I was a human, just like you," Pochi paused. "Okay, maybe not like you, or any of the humans in this world. Keke, my world would be in chaos if all of us were jumping through skyscrapers, or shooting fire out of our hands. God, we really don't need another 9/11 over there."
Pochi nudged over to Elm's face. "Hey, did I tell you about that time my friend almost got caught by his mom, trying to jerk off to henta-"
"Shut up." Elm raised a finger, and Pochi stopped.
Elm looked around her. She couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.
Then, the thoughts and questions started to rise in her head. Her hand sparked little tinges of light like static arcs of electricity as she scanned her surroundings, this time, with the power of chi.
Chi was the primary energy, and life-force of every world. While there were many alternative names for it, chi was the original name given to the life-force of the world by the first finders in all the myriad realms. Sadly, they got wiped out by the biggest scum in history but Elm had to admit that in terms of searching for someone, as long as you were in a world, chi was the best energy for it.
And so, as Pochi tried his best to stop a few quips here and there, Elm focused all of her chi into finding the person who was watching her.
And yet, there was no one. But, that couldn't be right. Her instincts couldn't and were never wrong. Oddly enough, even though she couldn't find anyone meaning harm or even watching her, with chi, she still couldn't shake off the instinct that she was being watched.
And then, it hit her. Maybe it wasn't a someone, and more, something.
With that thought, inside her head, a blinking red dot appeared on her radar. It was in the Northern outskirts. They had walked into the radial range of a dungeon.
Focusing more on the dungeon, she could feel that it wasn't really the typical dungeon that spew out monsters and invited daring adventurers inside, but more like, it was living. Like, there was a soul inside that dungeon that was sentient, angry, and lost.
The Dungeon was moving.