Chapter 27 :

Episode 7 : Captain (1)

The bow disappeared when I landed on the ground without a scratch.

However, as for the cat, it was shrinking down to a normal sized cat, making the arrow fall off of its anus as it tried to endure the pain.

"Master! Why did you do that!?" The cat descended on top of my head when it shrunk down.

"Because I'm not your master." I growled at it before grabbing the cat with both of my hands. "Now tell me.. who are you?"

The cat was a little perplexed but patted his chest in a proud manner to answer my question. "Eh? I'm the great and powerful Behemoth!"

"I'm JoonChul."

"Huh!? You're not §̸̡̢̥̱͔̪̘̍̒͗͑̈́̋͆̌̀͜ͅ@̸̑͊̀̿͛̿̀͒͝͝͝t̵̥͓̼́̓͂̈́͝∆̶͉͚̭̘̝̳̉͑͆͆̿̏͝ñ̷͉̟̪̣̓̄̓?"

His voice distorted suddenly which startled me. "Repeat what you just said. I didn't get to hear it."

"What? I said you're not §̸̡̢̥̱͔̪̘̍̒͗͑̈́̋͆̌̀͜ͅ@̸̑͊̀̿͛̿̀͒͝͝͝t̵̥͓̼́̓͂̈́͝∆̶͉͚̭̘̝̳̉͑͆͆̿̏͝ñ̷͉̟̪̣̞̼̫͙͍̼̙̓̄̓ͅ?"

I thought with my eyes narrowed. ‘It distorted again..’

"Anyway, do you know where we are?" I asked Behemoth because I didn't want to overthink about the distorted voice.

"My h-..master?!"

‘My head.. what's going on?’ My hands that were grabbing the cat, were now holding my head because of a sudden headache.

Behemoth dropped down as he watched me groaning in pain, then he tapped my foot with his paw, worried about me.

‘Memories...! Make it stop..! What is this..!?’ I shrieked from the unbearable pain of having unfamiliar memories shoved into my head.

Behemoth spoke as his eyes opened with wide pupils. "Master..?" His ears pricked with an ear to the side while his whiskers pointed forward.

[Unidentified entity!]

[Error has occurred!]

"Stop it! Stop it!" I shouted furiously which caused my surroundings to rumble intensely.

A beacon of pitch-black light bursted out, enclosing me in the middle, and souls drifting outside of the beacon of darkness.

Behemoth who was beside me, was knocked away by the burst of souls.

I kept hearing the souls lingering thoughts, their cries for survival, their desires to live, their screams upon death..

At that moment, I shut my eyes close. All I could see was the darkness, and in that black void, I recalled something.

⟨"Mom! Can I play the angel character?" The young me held my mother's apron with begging eyes.

"No, dear." My mother answered as she sliced the onions.

"But I never get to play her! Mom. Why can't I play her?"

"Because you hate angels in your past life." She giggled whole-heartedly but with tears in her eyes.

"M-Mom?! Don't cry! I won't play the angel! So please don't cry!"

I became anxious when I saw her cry. Even though she was slicing onions, I felt her tears were genuine. The young me could see through her pretendous acting, the sadness in her eyes.. and that was why I hugged my mother's legs firmly.

I told her sincerely. "I'm here.. don't cry."

My mother couldn't help herself and embraced me into a warm hug. "Satan.. i want you back.."⟩

I moved my lips to powerlessly say. "..Satan.."

At the same time, the beacon of darkness that was shooting into the sky, caused the ground above to disintegrate into nothing but ashes for the souls to absorb.

Ear-piercing sounds reverberated everywhere until it reached the sleeping Mirai and the barely awake Raiden.

———

Mirai was jumped by the ear-splitting noise and got up with her eight legs before coming into realization when she was supposed to be with JoonChul.

"What's going on?" As soon as she shifted her eight eyes to the right, she discovered the source of the sound and became stupefied from the sheer terror being emitted by the tremendous dark beacon.

"Mimi! Are you okay?" After running to Mirai in a flash, Raiden asked her.

Mirai pointed at the beacon with her four legs and exclaimed. "I'm okay! But what about that?"

"I don't know but I do know that my student is in that beacon!"

"Wait.. it's coming from Behemoth's place!"

"How did Joon get there?!"

"I'm sorry! I should have kept an eye on him.."

"No need to apologise, Mimi. Let's deal with the situation at hand." Raiden uttered as he got ready to rush to his student.

It took a second for Mirai to respond back. "..right!" Mirai climbed on Raiden's leg until she arrived on his shoulder.

‘He really cares about his student.. even to the point of using a risky skill.’ Mirai pondered, observing Raiden's every moves.

Mirai had a troubled smile. ‘Guess I'll help you this time..since it was partially my fault.’

Mirai began to chant her spell to support Raiden while he was expelling lightning behind his back.

[‘Atsushi Mirai’ has activated the skill, ‘Mother Nature's Protection’ Lv. ???.]

In the right moment, a light shimmered vividly in the color green while outlining Raiden's entire figure.

Even Raiden was flabbergasted by Mirai's action when he was a second away from activating his skill.

"I can't risk losing you." Mirai whispered to his ear affectionately.

Raiden grinned as a response to her words.

[‘Takumi Raiden’ has activated the skill, ‘Overdrive’ Lv. ???.]

The dungeon was already a wreckage from the destructiveness of the beacon, however as lightning charged up inside Raiden, it forced the floor to vibrate incredibly, cracking the ground in the process as he dashed extremely far away from his original position.

The air current would have damaged Raiden's body when he passed a certain speed but thanks to ‘Mother Nature's Protection’ casted by Mirai, he was one hundred percent fine.

It took only a few seconds to get down into the deep hole that JoonChul had fallen into.

There, Mirai and Raiden found Behemoth in his small form, standing afar from the beacon.

Behemoth saw the two and ran to them as quickly as possible.

On the contrary, the beacon started to die down, revealing a man holding a katana.

Mirai, Raiden, and Behemoth must have sensed the difference between the human, JoonChul and the man standing in that beacon.

Raiden mentioned with a puzzled expression on his face, even his voice sounded very off. "Something is different yet familiar."