Chapter 7: Investigation

There were some good reasons why Yuu and Lyo had yet to explode this area of the forest in great detail. For starters, there were a lot of monsters that used poison, fire, and such in this area. Additionally, the forest was also denser, and there was even some hostile plantlife as well. If one was not careful, it could go really badly, so everyone had to stay alert and not get into danger.

That said, before it had been the two of them, but now there was eleven of them. Therefore, it would be far easier to handle everything this time around. Yuu and Lyo were also equipped in Yuu's latest gear, so they had some good defenses and equipment. A few of the adventuters were looking enviously at them, but it seemed like they had no intention of attacking to steal them, as Shadow was not triggering.

Yuu would have liked it if Shadow triggered more easily, but he would have to put up with them for now. In any case, something seemed to be threatening his home, so he wanted to see what it was.

"Ah, its another drake" James said as he cut it in half with one swing. Even Yuu could not instantly kill drakes, at least not without using some high powered magic, but this person was doing it with a sword. He was also able to get by his senses and move next to Yuu without him realizing, so Yuu considered him a fairly unreasonable existence that defied reason and common sense.

And that was coming from Yuu, who the other adventurers thought exceeded reason and common sense, at least for someone his age. Lyo too, as they watched him take out a Venom Wolf with an arrow to the head.

"Haha! See that Yuu?" James said while flexing his muscular body.

"Go die".

"Eww, gross".

That was the reactions from Yuu and Lyo respectively. Although he expected Yuu's response, Lyo's words hurt him. After all, Lyo was responding with no malice or negative intent for James, and was just innocently stating his honest opinion.

Because of that, the sight of James aggravating Yuu, and then Lyo sending James into a saddened state from his honest and innocent remarks, became a common appearance for the others, relieving a lot of the tension they had built up.

However, Yuu and both adventurer mages stopped in their tracks when they reached a certain point. James too seemed to instinctively sense something was amiss.

"That is...really intense..."

"This magical power...its practically radiating..."

"What could be radiating this much power?"

"Its probably...a Dragon. And not the normal kind either, but an Ancient Dragon. Said to be the Guardians of the Gods, or Embodiments of Destruction and Mayhem..."

Yuu just blinked in shock.

"Erm, what? Wouldn't we notice something like that?"

"Ancient Dragons are basically sleepyheads. Nothing wakes them up, so its probably been here for centuries, and the mountains and terrain formed while it was asleep. Incidentally, its probably not the cause of the abnormalities".

In other words, while they had encountered an extremely dangerous existence, it was fast asleep and had not woken up, even though there was some sort of massive magical anomaly happening right on top of it.

"Its also probably why even in the winter, this region is so hot. Leaving aside the volcanic activity, there is an Ancient Dragon radiating body heat underneath. That is some level of heat generation".

Indeed, it was getting rather hot. Even though Yuu could use ice magic, its not like he could continuously keep everyone and everything cool, and he especially couldn't use it while he was asleep. Otherwise, sleeping with Lyo would have been a lot less awkward for him. So basically, not only was there lava, or magma, underneath them, but there was also an Ancient Dragon sleeping underneath radiating a ridiculous amount of body heat. Adding the fact that the geography was in a form to trap heat, and it was no wonder it was that hot.

Well, also continuously generating cold air and ice would be a massive strain on magical energy and would cause him to be unable to fight properly in emergencies.

"Well, that is unsettling" the mage of the second group, Garron, mentioned as he passed some water to one of their warriors. As for their archers, they were scouting the sides.

"...why is the terrain so jagged though?" Lyo asked innocently. "I mean, more then usual? There are layers upon layers, cliffs upon cliffs, as if the ground was torn into twice..."

"Ah, do you not know the story? Well, its more like a Fable, but it explains a lot" Argen mentioned. "Supposedly a dozen or so centuries ago, there was a great battle between a Hero and a Demon King, with even Gods and Evil Gods taking part in it. The battle was so severe, it stretched across the entire planet. All the large civilizations got destroyed in the process, and the world was torn into, causing the various scars in the ground that make the world so jagged and with all the various terrain elevations".

"...wait, so these canyons..."

"Are basically claw marks, yes. Or weapon fire scars. Or things like that".

Scary! More like, what the hell! This world didn't feel like it had that extreme of a power balance or gap! How the hell do you tear up an entire planet in a single battle!

Yuu was rather shocked at this legend, since so far, aside from James, nothing seemed that overly ridiculous.

"Well, that reaction is why most people think it is just a legend. That said, it is clear that something happened, because it is true that a lot of major civilizations wiped themselves out or fell apart over one thousand years ago. ANd if you look at the animals, things like Wolves and Bears and powerful predators dont always have great climbing ability has survived and maintained their positions. If the world had naturally been like this, I would think we would see a lot more Spider type monsters and creatures like that around".

Yuu, who didn't trust people anyways, certainly did not trust such a legend. Obviously, something else had happened, since such a story was clearly ludicrous and unbelievable. Well, Yuu didn't trust anyone anyways, aside from Lyo. The only reason he even believed them because he used a magic tool to check himself and confirmed there were some irregularities.

However, before they got much farther, an arrow was fired in front of them with a note. The mage went to pick it up and read it.

"It looks like there are some dangerous creatures up ahead. There is a few Treants, a Lich, a Siren, and several Shadow Wolves".

"...working together?" James asked, confused.

"Yes, it appears so".

"First the Magic Bears, now this...what is going on here?"

Garron looked back to Yuu and Lyo.

"It might get tough...do you want a drink of water?" he asked, offering. Yuu narrowed his eyes however, and took out his own.

"I already got some special wayer for me and Lyo" he stated, taking a drink. Lyo also took an energetic drink.

"Specially made by my bestiest best friend Yuu!"

"Lyo! Would you please stop announcing it like that?! Its embarrassing! Moron!"

Needless to say, the two of them had plenty of their own supplies. Rather, it seemed like they were living better then orphans usually would be, not to mention commoners. Plenty of food, plenty of water, things like that. However...there was certainly a number of people who didn't think it was right to just leave them out in such a dangerous area, especially alone.

However, Yuu was so cold to them all that it was hard to even think to bring up the topic, since it seemed like he might kill anyone who suggested that. So it remained in a sort of awkward silence, aside from the repeated conversations between James, Yuu, and Lyo.

Either way, the group decided to push forward and engage the enemies barring their way.

"Crystal Rain!"

"Flame Cobra!"

"Featherblade!"

The battle started with the three big magic users, Yuu, Cassor, and Garron. Unlike the Flame Tornado that threatened to burn down the forest, Flame Cobra used condensed flames to form a cobra which constricted around an enemy, burning them and only them to death. That said, Yuu did question if that thing actually looked like a Cobra, but that was besides the point. He also thought Cobra's used venom, but again, besides the point.

Yuu used his signature ice magic to make it rain huge chunks of ice from the sky, disrupting the formation of the monsters and killing off a few of them, while wounding the Siren. The Siren looked at him with its eyes, and began to sing...but was shot in the head by Lyo's arrow, finishing it off.

Good job Lyo. I would like to keep Shadow secret for now...

Sirens attack through psionic attacks, but they also charm men and steal their lifeforce. They were especially attracted to virgins, and since Yuu was a child, obviously was one. Consequently, there was another type of monster that also did that, the Succubus, but Sirens were more sound based. Since it would obviously count as trying to take something from Yuu, his Shadow could have been exposed. Incidentally, the lack of a reaction from Shadow was one reason Yuu also decided to work with them for now.

The Lich was the one to pull off a counter attack, as it was an undead capable of using magic. It was the only undead in the group, but it sent forward a black mist. However, Garron's magic, Featherblade, not only cut through it, but several creatures around it, reducing the spread of the black mist.

The ones that seemed to prove to be the toughest was the Treants. Although one got burned to death with fire magic, the others attack, their tree branches turning into tentacle like arms and attacking them. Several of them also went for Yuu, but Cassor intercepted with fire magic and burned them to death. Seeing this action, the monsters suddenly reacted and all began to heard towards Yuu.

However, they got crushed as Yuu cast another Crystal Rain, while Lyo sniped the rest with a bow. And James stepped forward, and cleaved through several of them at once with his sword, while the warriors who were supposed to be the vanguard ended up not getting a chance to act.

Yuu widened his eyes though when he realized what just happened, but just stayed silent and glared at James, cursing him out in his head.

Bastard...he could have killed them all himself if he wanted to...

And so, it got even more tense between James and Yuu.

Eventually, as the sky darkened and the moon rose in the sky, Lyo looked up and admired.

"Hey, Yuu, both moons are out!"

Yuu looked up, to see for himself. This world actually had two moons, but because they lived in a canyon with a lot of trees and mountains and cliffs obstructing, plus given the danger of being out at night, they rarely got to see both moons out at once. One of them was white, like the world Yuuki lived in, while one was red, a beautiful kind of red.

As for why Lyo went out of his way to state it, is because he saw how Yuu was during these times when he looked up at the moons. Lyo was not sure why, but whenever Yuu looked at the two moons, his mind and body relaxed more then when he slept normally. Incidentally, because they were camping out for the night, even Lyo was not dumb enough to sleep naked.

What Lyo did not know though was that this sight made him feel safe, because it confirmed he was in a different world then the parents of Yuuki. Knowing that he was in an entirely different world, seeing a sight they never would, made him feel calmed and relaxed. SOmetimes, at nights like these, he would dream sweet dreams, like his parents getting charged with murder and child abuse finally, and going to jail for life. Being shunned and treated terrible for coming such terrible crimes against children. Although Prison was filled with criminals who had done terrible things, those who kill and abuse children are treated like the lowest of the low, and often end up killed in prison.

So while they seemed dark, to Yuu, they were happy thoughts. After all, some of the stuff that his parents put him through...it was enough to induce vomit, he was sure.

As for why they only appeared in dreams, its because Yuu had no faith in people in this world, or the previous one. After all, he was abused so badly and yet no one did anything to stop it. No one reported it. And while he eventually gave up, he certainly did at least try to ask for help...but it was ignored every time.

Even though in this world, there was still scum like that, at least he no longer had to put up with those two any more.

"Yuu, camp is ready" Lyo said, as their tent was up. It was a very simple and easy to set up tent, made by Yuu. There was also a single sleeping bag, though the reason for that different on who you asked.

If you asked Yuu, the reason was because he and Lyo would need to take shifts on guard duty.

If you asked Lyo, he would say it was because they were the bestiest best friends in the whole world, and could easily share one, the comfort of sleeping with a friend helping one sleep more calmly despite camping out with the risk of monsters attacking.

That said, their biggest disagreement was probably guard duty. Mainly, everyone objected to either Yuu or Lyo being on guard duty for every shift, but Yuu would not trust anyone to do it if one of them was not there. Lyo was the only one he trusted. In the end, they were not getting anywhere, and Yuu would not budge on the matter, so eventually James just went and accepted it.

And so, the night passed peacefully enough, with almost no attacks. When they did attack, James defeated them all before anyone else had a chance to react, he was that overwhelmingly powerful. Yuu wondered that if James ever did trigger his Shadow, if it would even be able to hit him.

That said, since he went and put his tent a bit away from the others, this also allowed a few others to quietly discuss the idea of trying to convince them to come back to the city with them where Yuu and Lyo could not hear them. But ultimately, they really couldn't agree on much, and just quietly went about their duties and resting for the next day.