In front of me, is a group of lizardmen.

For some reason, I feel like I know some of them.

But I have no time to chat with them.

I turned my back at them and kept scanning all of the mountains around me.

"AICYNA!"

My voice echoed through the mountain range without response.

Though, when I shouted out, I heard a series of thumps behind me.

Checking what happened, these lizardmen just fell on their behinds.

As I was about to jump away to continue my search, one of them spoke.

"A-are you...

Reiza?"

That made me turn around in an instant, which made the one who asked jerk his head backward.

"...you know me?"

He seemed even more surprised after I said that.

"S-so you really a-are?"

"...who are you?"

My eyes squinted at him.

"...d-don't y-you re-remember...?"

...

No matter how much I try to, I can't remember them.

Since there are holes in my memory for some reason...I won't strain myself too hard to remember all of this nonsense.

"No, I don't remember.

Who are you?

I don't have time for this."

"Y-you visited out village a few weeks ago...

You taught us magic and defended our village from threats..."

...is that so?

Does that mean these guys are in debt to me?

I could use help searching for Aicyna right now.

...

But first, this is getting annoying.

I should make them do what Aicyna always did.

"All of you.

Close your eyes and calm down."

Although confused for a second, they eventually complied and closed their eyes as I told them.

And after a few minutes, they calmed down completely.

To their astonishment, they didn't feel any fear anymore.

After that, I explained I needed them to find a human woman somewhere around here.

And luckily, they agreed to help.

|= A few hours of searching later =|

...

"She is alive."

Those words made me sign in relief...

When we first found that severed arm, I thought it was all in vain.

But nonetheless, we continued searching.

And then, we finally found her actual body buried under rocks and wood.

She was in a terrible condition.

A missing arm, fractured leg and blood coming from all parts of her body.

But she was still alive, though barely.

Fortunately, one of these lizardmen was very skilled at recovery magic.

If it was just me, I might have had problems keeping Aicyna alive.

But with his help, her life has been saved.

After that, it was decided we head back to their village.

The lizardmen walked in front so they didn't have to close their eyes while I once again carried the unconscious Aicyna with my tail.

On our way through the mountains, I found out the big dragon I killed was something like a godly existence to them from their talk.

They would never even have thought to oppose it, much less defeat it.

I agreed, saying it was a tough fight, but all they could do was just fall into silence as a response.

...

After we finally arrived at their village, I could only feel dead air around me.

All of the residents either closed themselves in their house, or fainted after getting close to me.

...

Although all of that feels normal by now, it's still a little bothersome.

To prevent any more casualties, two of the lizardmen group who I was with went ahead to inform the others.

Other than warning the others, he also went to tell the chief to come meet me.

Thanks to that, only a few, who were too curious and didn't listen to the warnings became victims of my 'aura'.

Then, a pair of familiar figures came into my view.

Although I didn't actually remember who they are, I could still tell I knew them.

One of them was an elderly lizardman with two protruding horns on his head.

And the other one...was a human.

At first, a human being in a lizardman village felt weird.

But right after that, I felt nostalgia regarding that.

I realized that I must have felt the same way sometime in the past as well.

"Welcome back."

It was the voice of the lizardman that kicked me out of my brief moments of trying to remember the past.

"...hello.

I suppose we used to know each other?"

Without opening his closed eyes, he made a little nod to confirm my thoughts.

"That is indeed the case.

Now then, why don't we talk inside?"

He then lead me to one of the houses, where we talked after I laid Aicyna down on a bed.

|= A couple hours later =|

...

I have not always looked like this.

My tail used to be much smaller and my arms weren't overgrown with thin fur.

It's a fact that I was probably on the verge of forgetting.

But thanks to Suddon, I was able to renew some of these memories...

...

Anyway...

They call the big dragon I defeated back there 'the king'.

And when I left this village, I was apparently going to fight him then.

But back at this village, they waited for several days without any signs of a large scale fight at all.

The mountain didn't open up, the earth didn't shake and no mana projectiles could be seen flying out.

They were both confused and pleased nothing dangerous seemed to be happening.

So naturally, they sent a reconnaissance team to scout out what happened.

And what they found, were just a few dead dragons.

In the end, the conclusion was that I somehow managed to avoid waking the big dragon and continued on to the forest.

But a little over a week later since then, this morning happened.

Some of the large scale fight's residues reached even all the way to the village.

Fortunately, nobody died because of it.

Everyone just endured and waited for it to end.

And then, it really did.

But to them, it seemed way too sudden.

The massive dragon flying above the mountain tops just suddenly fell down and the noise from the crash echoed all the way to the village.

Following that, everything went silent.

Completely silent.

Which is why the group of warriors was sent to investigate.

And then they met up with me.

That's more or less the summary of what they told me...

In the middle of our talk, Aicyna woke up.

Although she couldn't move around too much, she could still join in on the talk.

Since I never excelled at conversing, her waking up was quite timely.

After their side of the story finished, it was our turn to say what happened.

And when that ended, I decided it was the time to leave as soon as possible.

...

Without Aicyna.

I don't remember why, but something is telling me I can't take her with me.

But I don't think there is a problem.

She should be safe here in this village.

When I told her about this, I thought she would want to follow me regardless.

But surprisingly, she agreed she should stay here and recover.

And so...

After going through so much together, we part ways.

"Good luck..."

"...thanks."

Seeing me off are Aicyna, Suddon the village's chief, Zarrdos the human and many other villagers.

It feels like all of them know me.

...even though I don't really remember any of them... except Aicyna of course.

After exiting the village, I opened up my status window and prompted the quest pointer.

It flew forward and jumped over a hill before disappearing from my view.

"Alright then..."

After muttering that to myself, I tighten my grip on the chalice and dash forward.

Speaking of which...

This chalice really must be indestructible.

In that fight with the dragon, I dropped it at some point.

But later, when I found it again, there were absolutely no scratches on it.

It's really strange...

While thinking about that, my muscles start to ache and I feel a little sluggish.

Feeling it's strange, I open up the status window.

Status screen: open.

Name: Reiza

Gender: Female

Race: Cataclysmic wolfman (prodigy)

Status: Poisoned

Level: 5000

Health: 113485/138105

Mana: 1129751/1137827

Vitality: 914

Strength: 1144

Intelligence: 11044

Stamina: 1281

Speed: 1803

...

Poisoned?

What poisoned me?

And what is this weird feeling...

It's as if this has happened before.

...

Actually, I have a feeling exactly this has already happened once.

I wonder what I did back then?

[Cleanse impurities]

I cleansed the poison off of myself and continued running without minding it too much.

Though, I focused on observing my surroundings to check for any small monsters who might have poisoned me.

But unfortunately... it happened again.

Status: Poisoned

Why can't I see anything?

Is it invisible?

Hmm...

[Cleanse impurities]

After cleansing off the poison again, I continued running.

But this time, I created an aura of fire around me to burn any potential invisible enemies that approach me.

From that point, the poisoned status never appeared again.

I have a feeling I did the same thing last time...

Finally, after a few hours of running where the quest pointer guided me, I found a shining magic circle.

Instinctively, I knew it was one for teleportation.

So without hesitation, I jumped into it...

...

Brightened vision and falling.

Just like when I was moving between the planes.

And just like the doors in the temple.

After a few moments, it was over.

I opened my eyes and found myself in a novel, yet familiar place.

A circular room with peculiar markings over the walls.

Four magic circles spread out near the walls.

Only two of them are shining.

And in the middle of the room, lies a big crystal.

Almost unconsciously, I walk forward and approach that crystal.

Even if I don't remember why, I know this is the important bit.

And alas, an image of someone appears in that crystal.

A human-like appearance with brown hair and plain white clothes.

...

I'm not surprised since it feels like this should be a familiar scene...

But something seems off.

What is it...?

"Ah...

So you are back..."

The man said that with a completely disinterested expression.

"...who are you?"

"Ah what?

You forgot again?"

His response was both agitating and curious.

'Again'... huh?

"I am god!

Remember now?"

...

God?

Something about that irritates me.

Was he my enemy?

He must have been...

"Look, we need to take a break with this game for a little moment...

Some problems popped up you know...

I don't have time to supervise you..."

Game...?

Problems...?

Supervise me...?

Nothing he says makes sense to me...

But then, his eyes briefly widened...

"Hmm?

Wait..."

And after that, he put his hand to his chin and looked at me with his squinting eyes.

Soon after that, his serious expression turned into a smile.

But that smile made me uneasy...

"Aaaactually...

Never mind!

Let's continue with the game."

Game again...

Just what is he talking about?

"But let me change this up a bit!

I'm sure you don't mind, right?"

"I-"

"Now then!

I'll choose the next extra stage for you.

But I'll also tell you what it is about in advance!

Am I not nice?"

The irritation within me only grows with his every word now.

He is definitely my enemy...

But I know I can't fight him.

Shit...

"Now then...

I want you to find a certain person.

You probably felt her arrive."

I felt it?

...

Could it be...that burst of energy only I could feel?

"It's someone who looks like a human girl with black hair.

Unfortunately, I don't really know where exactly she is right now, so you will have to search for her."

He is telling me to look for a human girl?

What is his purpose now?

"And then, when you find her..."

His subtle smile turned into a grin as he looked straight at me.

And that only made me more uneasy about it.

"Kill her."

Bonus:

This marks the end of the Gundar's temple arc.

Next time: Hunting a god?