The three girls and Alexis entered the forest, a deep floral scent filled their noses, Momo was at the front, carrying a short spear in her right hand, a small buckler protecting her left wrist. Celia wielded a spiked mace which didn't suit her small stature. She looked like an extremely vicious cultist rather than a maiden.
Needless to say, Fran was trailing behind the other two girls with a light skip in a delighted mood, holding her staff made from the extremely rare blackwood, found only in the forsaken forest.
Alexis could gauge the girl's moods from their tails, Momo's was slightly jittery and puffed out, whilst Fran's was dancing from side to side clearly displaying jubilation making tiny embers spiral around the staff. Her inquisitive eyes shifted towards the first man to make her orgasm, the BL novel she was writing long discarded from her mind, now thinking about writing a forbidden romance between a girl and her best friend's husband.
"It's eerily quiet, there's no wolves or anything..." Celia said, several crackling sounds followed as they crushed the dried branches underfoot.
"I think Imra was too eager for her reward..." Alexis thought. walking behind the three girls, his perception after fusing with Imra was far beyond the normal human, once again evolving when he reached level 5.
Alexis took in the surrounding 200 meters, it was completely void of any dangerous creatures. The girls took it very seriously after reaching deeper into the forest, Celia was watching the flanks whilst Momo took the centre vanguard, and even Fran stopped playing with her staff and seemed to cast some sort of sensing spell causing her eyes to glow bright blue seeming to see far into the distance slowing her pace as a result.
"It seems these girls aren't complete amateurs, but then how did Momo and Frey die in this training on certain routes." Alexis followed the girls, focusing his perception on the rear, making sure no monsters were able to sneak onto their rear.
_____________
Meanwhile, inside a dark crypt located within the central area of the forest. A man of average height, wearing a black robe that covered most of his face. All that was revealed was the light shimmering of his silver glasses and the dark red eyes glimmering from inside the hood.
As the man paced down the dreary crypts staircase, he approached a large mausoleum with several stone caskets and graves of forgotten heroes, many had been smashed to pieces by monsters and grave robbers.
In the centre of the dark room, illuminated by the man's single flickering torch, barely revealing the details. A large majestic black coffin which seemed impervious to dirt as it remained pristine large gold runes illuminated the lid of the coffin. Lay upon the coffin was the depictions of large silver stars surrounding a strange crescent indentation.
Countless broken tools and weapons lay to its side, clearly from people who'd tried to open the tomb seeking treasure. Not only were their tools left, but countless skulls and remains of various races, from goblin to human also cluttered the floor.
The man ignored the dirt and abandoned skeletons, pulling a certain tool from his pocket. It was a pendant of a dagger with its blade shaped like a crescent moon. He placed the pendant near the head of the casket lid making a loud noise as it slid into the indentation, there was the sound of several stone walls moving around the floors and walls.
What was revealed was a chamber behind the coffin, inside the room a beautiful woman of unknown origins was frozen inside a large crystal shard. She had pale skin, like an exquisite porcelain doll. Her long silver hair was so dazzling it illuminated the dark cavern which had no sunlight, like a magic spell. She was wearing a gothic-styled black dress covered in strange runes and bow-tied like belts as the dress flowed down to the ground covering her feet.
"Ah.... Aleria blackwood it's a pleasure to finally meet you."
The man let out an eerie chuckle, before correcting himself.
"Or should I say, Goddess of Chaos and Evil?"
Before the man could move any closer, the seemingly dead corpse opened its black eyes, there was no iris, no sclera only darkness, with a slight blazing golden radiance that seemed to be floating within her former pupils, able to sense everything within several kilometres and ignoring the human who was forced onto his knee's by the sheer pressure of her will and spirit.
"My dear Alexis, have you come to see mother?"
As the crystal crumbled, her shape changed: massive black horns sprouted from her head, curling before pointing skyward, as her fingers transformed into horrible claws that resembled serrated razors, with loud bone tearing noises.
As she began the last transformations for her first stage, her height exploded to over 220cm; Aleria's mouth now appeared horrifying as it expanded from one cheek to the other, almost splitting her head in half when she grinned, showing terrifying spiky teeth.
Despite her transformations, she remained incredibly beautiful in a macabre, twisted way.
"But mother is busy killing a false king, please forgive me and have fun with your little harlots for now."
The man was shuddering with respect unable to utter a word from his throat as blood began pouring from his eyes, nose and mouth. Being in her very presence consumed not only his life force but his very soul. Aleria snapped her fingers, causing the man to fall down with a bang, the rest of his blood formed a circle and hexagram on the floor.
Sadly, if things were normal Alexis wouldn't have been around to awaken Aleria and the traitor would have used her powers to cause dungeon monsters to mutate causing a dungeon wave. His actions had already made significant changes that nobody was aware of, even the cursed Mavis Grey.
"Stupid cultist, the only man that can touch me is my son. Peh!"
Aleria spat towards the cultist, vaporizing him into black ash before losing interest.
A dark line appeared with a swipe of her palm, steadily splitting apart as if she'd ripped through space itself. Inside the gateway, visions of a hellish world wrapped in fire and dense smog bellowed eternally became distorted.
As Aleria entered the portal, she cast one last glance in the direction Alexis and his party were, her black lips blowing a kiss that sent jet black vapours towards his location. As they unknowingly entered his body, slowly changing his body starting with his cells. The girls didn't notice his eyes turn completely black momentarily, with a vibrant green light flashing in his pupil different from his mother's golden colour.
If Imra was here, she would have recognized his mother's current visage being the former Queen of hell, known to the worshipers of Solana as the Maiden of Chaos and Evil.
________________
The girls and Alexis were currently over a kilometre into the forest, they could finally sense a group of goblins ahead, two warriors and one scout. He watched as the three girls made plans on how to tackle them, assuring them he'd take care of any problems that would arise in their plans.
"Celia, you hold the right goblin warrior, Fran uses your magic to kill it. I'll hold off the other two with Alexis. When you're finished come to help us." Momo was surprisingly the one in charge of the three girls during combat.
Celia began to glow with a faint light, her speed greatly increased also greatly increasing her enmity, attracting the three goblins' attention. Not allowing her to be surrounded Momo sprang towards the left goblins smashing one with her buckler, busting its nose open spraying its foul black blood all over, as her spear thrust towards the rear goblin.
"Thank you, Momo. Hah!"
She swung her mace, dealing a crushing blow to the goblin's arm, snapping it the wrong way forcing it to drop the makeshift wooden shield with a loud shriek. Behind the battle, Fran aimed her staff towards the goblins, she seemed to be speaking in tongues as it sounded like a demon speech to Alexis, shocked to see it actually worked, as several small bolts of fire appeared over her head.
"Inimici mei ardebunt! Shoot down my enemies, [Firebolt]!"
The three firebolts shot out towards the goblin's heads reaching over 20 meters in the blink of an eye, followed by three loud booming noises. Her spell had melted their faces partially the goblin with a broken arm fell to the floor convulsing as its HP reached zero after a few seconds.
Fran looked at Alexis with an ecstatic face, her fingers giving him the victory scene whilst blowing him a kiss. Quickly turned back to battle chanting another spell to protect Momo who was about to block a heavy strike from the larger goblin.
"Meis sociis protege... Protect my sisters! [Mana Barrier]"
A clear barrier appeared around Momo's left arm covering the parts her buckler cannot defend as the goblin's club swung down with devastating power. With a loud Thump, the club impacted a fluid-like membrane that absorbed more than half the swings damage before shattering. The rest of the blow was easily taken by Momo's shield, followed by her spear piercing the goblin's neck in an instantaneous counterattack.
As the second goblin bled out from its neck, the girls no longer seemed to need any help and made quick work of the last goblin. Luckily Alexis found a hobgoblin approaching so he wouldn't seem useless wanting to test out his new spell begging his 5-second chant pointing his left index finger feeling great mimicking one of his favourite characters.
"Domine inferni, ego praecipio tibi ut dones mihi flammam tuam! [Abyss Fire] "
The words came from his mouth without his need to understand them, feeling a dark flame filling his body. Seemingly Kept contained by strange black breaths of air that strangled the raging flames to a manageable level for Alexis.
At the tip of his finger, a vortex of black fire began forming, slowly growing into a small ball increasing in density and heat with each second, finally forming an unstable ball over 20cm in diameter.
'Kyaa! Alexis looks so cool!" Imra was secretly watching him from several hundred meters away her fists covered in blood and the flesh of monsters.
When Alexis released the ball of fire, a reverberating explosion occurred so intensely it momentarily deafened the girls and Alexis, whilst Imra seemed unaffected her eyes glittering with admiration for how he was growing up slowly. As the large black ball blasted towards the poor unaware hobgoblin with a thunderous roar.
[Defeated Hobgoblin]
[Hell Fire absorbed 1HP and 2MP]
[Gained EXP]
All Alexis could hear was the intense screams of the hobgoblin as it burnt to death in a black inferno with a swirling blast, causing many surrounding trees to be vaporized leaving only a large black crater that continued burning well after the goblin had died.
Fran looked at him with her jaw touching the ground, whilst the other two were pretending to act serious cutting off the goblin's ears and searching for monster cores. However, their slightly shaking bodies gave away their fear of the goblin's gruesome death by incineration.
Alexis felt things were wrong, there was no sign of the dungeon wave. Imra had already scouted ahead and seen no signs of any berserk monsters. However, she mentioned a nostalgic presence that was here momentarily, which made Alexis curious.
"What's going on?"