Standing in the midst of the remnants of their madness Paws couldn’t be more relieved to find Feral safe and sound with not even a hair out of place. He didn’t know why his human was completely uninvolved in all the chaos nor did he care, all he cared about was that he was safe.
Feral was startled at feeling something sticky on him, he glanced down only to find an anxious Paws snuggling to him and with a light smile patted his back carefully. Dina wasn’t sure how she was able to hold back in this situation but she did and she couldn’t be more grateful that she wasn’t puking her guts out right there and then.
‘I’ve observed enough, since there’s no warning against it then I’d rather do it!’
After much contemplation, Feral who had already made up his mind picked up Paws' huge body (to his shock) and swinging it unto his neck made a full sprint at the doors that had suddenly appeared, and before the eyes of the still dazed others slammed open the blue door and jumped right in.
“?!!”
***
‘AHHHHHHHHH!!!!’
Dina screeched internally while tightly holding onto Paws as they pummeled down the strange tunnel. Just as they had stepped inside they were instantly sent falling into the strange tunnel and Dina instantly regretted choosing too quickly.
‘I should have waited for some scapegoats to go first but I didn’t want what happened in the first trial to happen again. What to do? Please let it not end like this! Zero wuwuwu.’
Zero as usual was silent throughout the whole ordeal and was like a bystander as he watched Dina howl and panic internally while keeping the straightest of all faces outside like she knew what she was doing.
BOOM!
Feral’s eyes widened as he landed on his feet suddenly, the force of his landing creating a dent in the sandy ground which swiped off all the sand in their area to the surrounding sides. He observed the sudden change of scenery wearily and was awed when his eyes caught something.
“What the heck?! That’s one huge sea!” he exclaimed in shock at the huge expanse of water before them.
Turning back to do more observation, he was shocked once more to see nothing but a shadowy borderline that led to heavens knew where and the only area where there was no water was the place they stood which was a rather narrow shore.
There was nothing but shadowy borders at the edges of the shore and the only borderless area was the one submerged by the sea whose sides were nothing but huge expanses of water that spanned an incredibly wide distance.
Dina couldn’t tell for sure if it was a sea or ocean, it was so wide it could be called an ocean but at the same time wasn’t quite huge enough. Just as she could ponder more on this, Paws who had been quiet for quite a while suddenly dashed towards the sea.
“Stop!!” a panicked Feral instantly leaped forward to snatch up the troublesome pet who was drooling at the sight of water. Seemed like he didn’t like the stickiness all over him.
“You can’t just run into that! What if something bad happens?! Be calm, maybe I can get a clue or t…?” Feral’s words were cut off when a flash of words appeared before them.
[Hidden stage 1: River of Forgetfulness;
Across the expanse of water lay a golden door you must approach. Participants! Thrive to overcome the obstacles within and wherein the river and cross its entrapment to your very freedom!]
Paws stared incredulously at the words before turning to Feral who was pondering its meaning. There was no visible obstacle to be seen now which meant these obstacles were hidden traps that could take any form, therefore to cross this so-called river (which it wasn’t) of forgetfulness, they had to be very cautious.
‘Why do they make the instructions so damn vague?! They barely give instructions and when they do it's nearly useless!’ Dina groaned internally as the gears in her head moved fast.
“Paws,” Feral suddenly called out, “Your bath will have to wait, the safest bet now is to fly across this sea to the other side, and I know it can’t be that simple but we have no choice but to take the risk. So can you turn into a peregrine falcon?”
Paws:?
Looking at Paws' visibly confused face, it hit Dina that peregrine falcons were only a thing of Earth and not supposed to exist in a magical kingdom… or was it?
‘I’m not even sure. Anyways, any fast-flying beast will do, after all, Paws can change within a second so that’s good too.’
“Forget it, any flying beast will do.”
With a nod, Feral watched on as Paws morphed into a brilliantly enormous albino golden eagle. Dina had never seen one and was awed by its beauty.
Reaching out to caress Paws' head which was made easier when he bent down, Feral gave him a soft kiss and with a leap unto his back, patted his sticky feathers as he praised, “Good boy.”
FWOOSH!
Paws spread his wings as he soared through the open skies above the river, according to Feral’s instructions he made sure to fly at a very high distance upwards, far from the river while moving forward.
Feral held tightly unto his neck as his black hair fluttered heavily against the current of the winds, he squinted his eyes in an attempt to protect them from the fierce wind as Paws skillfully navigated forward.
He made sure to position himself well as he urged Paws to move at his fastest speed, he knew there were people after them and if they didn’t hurry up those people might catch up.
Just as everything seemed to be going well, Feral felt his head blank slightly. At first, he brushed it off, but then it happened again and at the third time, he knew something had to be wrong. Before he could figure out what it was, however, a distinct numbness ran through his mind and they were met with the first obstacle.
Numbness of the mind. One could not cross the river of forgetfulness from the skies or else…
Feral finally snapped to reality only to see they were halfway through the sky and were swiftly falling into the river!
“PAWS!” he screamed alerting Paws who instantly changed form on getting his senses back while he, Feral, took off his bracelet and stuffed it into his interdimensional ring just in time for the duo to fall right into the sea with a –
SPLASH!
***
“What? Is that really them?” a bright-eyed female angel with four wings asked in confusion at the sight before them.
On the shore were two angels and two elves who had immediately gone after Feral. After the departure of the two it was like something snapped in the mind of everyone and they instantly began rushing in troops into various doors, many avoided the blue door mostly because of the guardian of elves, and for the ones who did enter…
“Have my eyesight gone wrong or is that a merman that I see within those waters?” a female elf with bright red hair muttered as she kicked aside the dead bodies of the other participants they had murdered.
“It seems so…” the second angel, a male with sparkling blue eyes said.
“Wasn’t he an elf?” asked the last elf, another male with violet hair and eyes.
“They’re the only ones who crossed into this door before us that are alive. It has to be them, just like the trailing voice said maybe one of the hidden obstacles is illusion magic?” the female angel stated.
“Hm… we’ll have to close in to confirm.”
“Alright.”
With that, the two angels spread their wings as they each grabbed an elf before approaching the river to confirm their sightings but just as they flew right up the same force that had attacked their predecessors attacked them and they were all sent tumbling into the sea.
***
D….
Din…..
Dina……..
“DINA!!!”
Gasp!
Dina snapped into reality from the loud calling within her head, with muddled senses she whispered slightly, “Zero?”
“Snap out of it Dina, you have a mission,” Zero cautioned fiercely.
This called her into order as she realized what situation she was in. Although having snapped back, her senses were still quite muddled, and under the constant mental attacks from the river, she found herself unstable so she took a swift decision.
Using the VR, she ordered it to continuously attack her mentally to give her enough shock she needed to clear her mind, her plan being that if she was fast enough then maybe she could swiftly swim to the other side before her mental energy ran out and the VR stopped operation.
It was an idea filled with so many holes but she had no choice but to take it since wasting more time coming up with another idea would be more detrimental to her.
“Tsk-, it hurts! Damn it!” Feral roared in pain as the waves of mental attack hit him. He was under strain from three things simultaneously, the river’s mental attack, the VR’s mental attack, as well as the slow depletion of his mental energy due to the use of the VR.
He was in so much pain that he felt like his brain would explode at any moment and he had to bite into his scaly hands for a while to calm down.
‘So they did come,’ Dina thought while looking at the drowning figures of their supposed attackers within the sea.
As non-aqua creatures, they should have died long ago but due to their strength, they seemed to have lasted for quite a while.
‘But in the end, they’re not meant for the sea, magical or not they’re elves and angels, so they’d eventually drown. Not my problem though.’
After looking for Paws for a while, Feral found him lounging about as a fish making him lightly smile.
Truthfully, if survival rates were to be calculated, both she and Paws would probably be the ones to have the highest of them all due to their aqua constitution but even they would eventually need food and other things to survive.
In the end, only those in the immortal stage, which was a stage one would cease to be mortal could survive without food.
Swooping up Paws from the waters, Feral took a deep dive downwards, and with all the strength he had swam forward, swimming swiftly like never before. All he could do to be distracted from the pain was to concentrate on his movements, the swaying of his body and tail, his long hair that floated after him, the feeling of water encompassing all over and fiercely caressing him as he raced against time.
Despite the pain, despite it all, both Dina and Feral had never felt something so exhilarating and at that very moment, everything felt perfectly… ideal.