The Fall

Hiro’s POV:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We quickly ran after the demon and his little group. I had mixed feelings about these harem-holding males.

Although when I was a human, just like every man, I too had such dreams, but that was probably because of human instincts. Just think of… for example the lions. They were harem holders as well. In my opinion, humans were the same kind of ‘animals’, but with much more intelligence. However you think about it, deep inside, every male wanted to have more women. When I was a human, that was my only question in my mind.

If I were to meet with my other half, what would happen with that instinct of mine? Would I try to get more women in this world which was filled with the idea of ‘the strong rules over the weak’? I’m not conceited, but I’m sure that I could have easily found females who would ‘serve’ me, just like these demonesses. The more time I spent here, the surer I became, that I couldn’t apply my common sense about the humans on the Earth to these unique races. Even the humans were much different…

After reincarnating, I’ve got my answer. To be honest, even I didn’t think that I’d be filled with so much love and satisfaction after a single woman. Even though I believed in my ideals, but I still had that feeling - Is it truly going to be like that? ... It seems like yes! I don’t feel any need to find another woman for myself besides Alice. Luckily, my new instincts are also helping me out because Hydras’ are the same as dragons. They need only a single mate!

Or maybe that’s an aspect of True Divine Beasts? Of that, I have no idea! While I was running at the front, Alice poked my back with her tail and she indicated with her eyes to look at my left. When I did so, I saw Poirlion who was strangely silent with a slightly crazed face. This whole thing with Poirlion didn’t come at the best time, but he had to fight it back nonetheless. The worst thing to do at such moments was to let the person in question battle. He could easily lose his mind, so we can’t let him fight before regaining oneself. We were stupid enough to let him clean up the ‘trash’ last time...

A few minutes later, we arrived at another cavern where the demons were fighting with a few monsters. This time we were the ones to simply rush through and leave them behind. There weren’t high-level cultivators taking these entrance exams because unlike Poirlion, everyone else rushed to join these academies as soon as they reached the fifth level. Cultivators at Poirlion’s level were usually members of such academies as Genotin Academy, or they weren’t talented enough to join and became rogue cultivators.

Just like the map in our memories told us, the number of these caverns were only going to increase as we progressed on our way. Compared to the distance between the last two caverns, it was only decreasing. Since we were quick and the monsters were mostly at the third stage, the demons still weren’t able to catch up to us, even after we fought our way through four more caverns.

Poirlion didn’t take part in the battles. It is better if he stands at the back and tries to get in control of himself. After going through another five chambers, we finally reached our destination. Strangely enough, the demons still didn’t catch up to us. Somehow I feel conspiracy. I bet that they want to ambush us or something like that… I’m not the cleverest one, but that much is clear even for me. Why would they bother with fighting their way here and go back while the monsters are attacking them continuously?

It was easier for them to kill us and take the necessary amount in our place and since we were a group of three as well, we could easily turn into their targets. Our destination was an unexpectedly beautiful place! The ground, the walls, and even the ceiling was littered in World Crystals. We should come back here and train when we are done here… the only problem was that this huge chamber which was at least two cubic kilometers was filled to the brim with monsters.

Interestingly enough, they weren’t fighting with each other. I saw a few little affrays or fights, but nothing serious. These monsters were eating the World Crystals in bulks, wasting away the energy inside them. Ugh… such a waste! You are supposed to control the energy inside it, not just eat it! I thought in my mind, feeling distressed upon seeing them wasting away so many World Crystals. Like that, most of the energy is going to disperse! Infinis, Necros, and Mortus crept out of our bodies and covered us. Necros turned into a spear in my hands, while Infinis turned into a staff in Alice’s hands.

Both of its sides were much thicker than the handle and there were small spikes on them. (AN: I don’t own the picture, and it’s only for illustration purpose. Alice's Staff Imagine something like that but with dark purple light.) As the monsters noticed us, all of them looked at us, but they didn’t move. Considering that they weren’t fighting amongst themselves, it was likely that we had to fight for our place in this little community.

I guess we’ll have to kill quite a lot of them… [Should we kill all of them? Hehe~] Alice said as she released her bloodlust and her face turned into a crazed one. These monsters were only at the third or fourth stage so we could get by for sure.

[I don’t know, my love. We’ll see how they are going to react.] I answered her as Necros covered my face as well. Only my eyes were visible as I jumped into the mass of monsters with six of my clones. They were also covered in Necros, which only made this whole thing ridiculous! Alice also followed after me, with two of her clones. I swung my spear from above and cut a bear-like monster, which had four arms, into two halves.

Since Necros used my soul force without me having to do anything, the monster died on the spot. Unintelligent monsters were different in that they didn’t have a world of their own. All they had was soul force, which they used to fight against us, cultivators. How or where these monsters were coming from was a question for me as well. Alice swung her staff horizontally, crushing the side of a centipede. It was such a gross creature…

A snake, which was at the fourth stage, wanted to bite into my back. Since I didn’t intend to let it do so, I somersaulted, evading its attack in the process. I thrust my spear downward to pin the snake to the ground and then using my tail, I quickly beheaded it. My clones were also doing the same and thanks to Necros, I wasn’t lacking in energy because it was continuously recharging my reserves.

I sensed a charging monster from behind me so I quickly rolled to the side as I swung my spear in an arc. As I turned back, all I saw was a five meters tall tiger with four of its legs missing. Since the massacre has started, the other monsters started fighting among themselves as well. [We should start learning our martial arts as well, don’t you think?] Alice questioned me as she crushed the head of a boar-like monster, which had four eyes and two, huge tusks.

[Yeah… Come, my clones are going to cover us while we extract them from our memories.] I answered her as my clones surrounded my body, while Alice also jumped into this little circle. I used Hydra’s Descent on all of my clones, while Alice used Dragon’s Descent. Three-layered defense. If they can break through such a heavy defense, then they might as well eat us…

I sat down with Alice in front of me. Both of us closed our eyes, while our other minds were concentrating on the battle. [We are such idiots… we should have done this BEFORE coming here…] Alice remarked as she sighed and then started concentrating. What she said was indeed true, but we aren’t perfect. Well, we are strong enough to do such idiotic things, so it’s alright. Haha~ I shut off everything with my main mind and concentrated on my memories.

I started extracting everything there was to know about the Martial Arts of my race. Its base were the techniques I’ve been using up till now. Though mine focused on my heads. It is called Twelve Eternal Chains. This martial art is a set of twelve moves. Each of its movements would stack up and become stronger, making it possible to hurt beings much stronger than us. The best part of it is that upon finishing the twelfth move, I would be able to release a curse as well on my enemy, which was a ridiculously powerful one.

I can only hope that I won’t have to use it. Its name was exactly the same as the name of the martial art, Twelve Eternal Chains. If I were to release that curse, my target would slowly weaken, until dying in the process. While the curse is active, the person in question can’t advance either. The higher level my enemy is, the more time it takes for my curse to kill. But if not cured, the person will die for sure.

Hopefully, not even the cultivators in this universe know how to resist it. We don’t know how many cultivators know how to resist curses. Just like how we didn’t tell it to anyone, others probably didn’t share this knowledge either. The memory crystals didn’t contain information about such things, so we don’t know if it’s widespread knowledge or not. The fewer the better for us, so hopefully no one knows about it! Though, that’s probably only a dream...

I sprung up from the ground, exactly at the same time as Alice. She had a similarly happy face as mine. We looked into each other’s minds and extracted each other’s memories. Her martial art was called Dragon’s Bane, which had a very similar effect compared to mine, except that hers wouldn’t stop her enemy from advancing, but in turn, hers is quicker to kill.

My curse is the kind which would creep from the inside out, slowly devouring my target, while hers is the kind which would crush and destroy her target in one swift move. We kissed once while the blood of the killed monsters and the shining World Crystals were littering the ground. Such a nice background for kissing~ Alice’s tail started swaying happily from left to right as she turned around to try out her newfound battle potential.

Alice and two of her clones used everything they had as a new and ancient draconic aura descended in the chamber. Suddenly the monsters stopped for a moment and Poirlion who was standing far at the back, fell to his knees with his crazed face gone as a respectful one took its place. While everyone was standing still, Alice swung her staff downwards, creating a dragon head in the process, which rushed forward and crushed many monsters in its way.

Bones and blood splattered everywhere because none of these monsters were able to stop such a powerful attack and this was only the first one. She swung her staff in an arc, creating a tail which was made out of World Energy and soul force. The monsters in its way were swiped away and smashed into the walls of the Abyss. Since the walls were very hard, they didn’t crash through them but they were crushed into bloody pulps!

With the third movement, Alice rotated in a circle, creating two Dragon’s Wings, which cut everything in her surroundings into two halves, with a diameter of fifty meters. These were relatively slow and heavy moves, but thanks to Infinis’ ability, Alice was much quicker in finishing them. With her fourth move, she stepped hard on the ground as she swung her staff from above. Her step made me remember Earthbenders from the Avatar…

As she finished her fourth move, the mouth of a dragon appeared and chewed these shitty monsters into minced meat and there came her fifth and last movement. “DRAGON’S BANE! Alice couldn’t help but shout out its name as she somersaulted and smashed the tip of her staff into the ground. Upon doing so, a powerful shockwave was released all around her and the whole Cavern trembled, which meant that this attack could very easily crush even someone at the sixth level if they were to wait it out…

Alice’s Dragon’s Descent enlarged for a moment and then collapsed back into a burning green energy spear. She threw it towards the remaining monsters as I quickly jumped back, fearing that it would affect me. Alice’s green spear exploded like an atom bomb and that green light quickly turned into white. I wasn’t able to see anything for at least two seconds before it finally dissipated. All of the monsters in the cavern were standing there motionlessly.

While roaring loudly, they quickly rushed forward to kill Alice, who was standing with her arms crossed at her chest, but before they could reach her, all of them started rotting, dissolving, and falling into pieces. Their legs, limbs, heads, teeth, everything withered and fell out or off as their bodies turned into mummy like corpses. A lion-like monster was struggling to swipe a last one at Alice’s face, but upon noticing Alice’s eyes, it simply fell to the ground, lifeless.

Alice had her eyes in slits, just like usual, but there was something more, something deeper, something… greater! Her aura was completely different. I felt like as if I’d be standing in front of a true god! Of course, my aura was the same and I didn’t feel bothered by this even in the slightest. I appeared next to her and while she was still standing there, all serious, I grabbed onto the tip of her tail. I saw that her little facade was starting to break as she was barely able to hold back a moan.

“H- Hiro! You are so evil! I wanted to look good!” She started whining loudly, completely breaking her character by doing so. She started hitting my chest weakly with her cute little hands. Even though those hands have just killed so many monsters in just five moves!

“Hahaha~ I know. Sorry, but I couldn’t stop myself from doing it!” I said while laughing happily as I embraced her into my bosom and kissed the top of her head. She hugged me back and then we separated. Poirlion was squatting on the ground while he was spacing out. His mind was too unstable and unclear… I transformed into my mini monster form and quickly took six million World Crystals into my storage space, but I used the space which was inside my stomach.

I looked at Alice with inquiring eyes as I said. “Can you sense it in my storage space?” She tilted her head to the side and looked at me as if I’d be an idiot. Realizing her meaning, I turned towards Poirlion with the same question… She was able to feel anything which was related to me because of our bond, so it was stupid to ask her. Since we weren’t able to sense Poirlion’s strength, naturally, we weren’t able to sense what was in his storage ring either. The storage space inside of our stomachs was an ability of True Divine Beasts.

Up till now, we’ve never used them before because we can’t take out things from it unless we transform into our monster forms. Poirlion shook his head sideways as he said. “No… I can’t sense anything. That’s ridiculous…” He said with a slightly surprised face as he tried to turn his mood for the better, but in the end, only a self-ridiculing smile crept onto his face. I felt sorry for him. These times were hard for divine beasts.

Since my willpower was way above the norm, I had no problem in dealing with it and through our bond, I was able to help out Alice as well, but Poirlion didn’t have such a choice. He had to rely on himself, alone. Doing something alone isn’t as enjoyable as doing it together. We could train and live alone silently with Alice as well, but what would become of us, of our life? That would be boring and terrible! Although we hate communities, but we need them. We are ridiculous indeed, but that’s our way, no intelligent beings’ way!

I felt sad for Poirlion, but I felt something else as well! I felt fucking happy! If he can’t sense it, it means that I can store away all of these! Should I leave a bit for those who come here later? I thought seriously but after another thought... Nah, I don’t care, sorry guys! I stopped thinking as an evil smile crept onto my face. Probably all of them are going to fail this exam, but bad luck is also a part of life! I know that I’m being an asshole here, but who cares if it’s going to be better for me, for us!

I jumped around in the cavern quickly and took away every World Crystal I found. It was more than ten billion! Haha! I’m a billionaire! Fuckers! I laughed happily in my mind as I jumped in front of Alice, turned back into my battle form and kissed her on her lips and raised her into the air as I rotated once.

“Hahaha! What are you doing Hiro?~ Put me down!” Alice laughed in a good mood as she held onto my arms.

“Let’s go!” I said with a bright smile on my face as I put her down. As we reached the entrance of the cavern, we found the whole group of newcomers, standing there in a huge group.

Eh~ interesting. I didn’t know that there was a party! Are we becoming outcasts? So be it! The demon who was behind us before jumped forward and looked into the cavern as he whistled. “*Whistle* That’s nice and empty! I don’t know what way you have to store it without us sensing anything, but I hope that you don’t mind sharing it with us, right? And something else as well~” He said with a superior smile on his face and he even dared to ask for my Alice!

This is screaming bloody murder! Before any of us moved, one of the bitches beside the demon shot an attack towards Alice, who was only cleaning her nails, which were as short as a human’s at the moment. She didn’t even bother to look up. Infinis covered her body and adding to that her Dragon’s Descent and her scales, that stupid attack was simply knocked off. Feeling that weak soul attack trying to ‘caress’ her soul, she simply laughed, ridiculing the woman by doing so.

She continued in doing what she was doing before. “What are you doing!? Are you even good for anything other than serving me!? You worthless bitch!” The demon shouted as he slapped the woman. I want to kill the woman for trying to hurt Alice, but this disgusting demon is even worse in my eyes. But before I could start thinking about what to do, Poirlion suddenly roared out with a crazed and bloodthirsty face while looking towards the ceiling. His powerful aura blasted out of his body, which was no good…

“How dare you hit her highness!” He shouted as he transformed into his dragon form and jumped into the crowd. Those poor guys were like vegetables in a meat grinder. Poirlion started swinging his tail, his wings, his paws, while his aura was continuously growing and going out of control. Mortus was also helping him by increasing his output damage. A few of his hits also shook the entrance of the cavern, which made it clear that he was attacking with all of his strength.

Fearing for the consequences, I started attacking the air with Twelve Eternal Chains. Alice also sighed upon seeing Poirlion’s reaction. My skill was a quick one, so I started thrusting with my spear forward. While Alice’s moves were called Dragon’s Head, Dragon’s Tail, Dragon’s Wings, Dragon’s Swipe, and Dragon’s Bite, mine were called First Head, Second Head… Twelfth Head. Her movements were five different ones and the sequence didn’t matter in her case, but her skills weren’t stacking up either.

Meanwhile, my moves stacked upon each other. Although the first one might be weaker than a normal attack of mine, but the twelfth one would be even stronger than Alice’s! I stopped after using my eleventh move and dissolved my clones. A huge amount of energy was swirling and circling inside my body. It’s no wonder that we couldn’t use these martial arts before. If we would have done so, then we would have exploded!

I felt pressured even like this since I was only barely able to hold it in my body. Especially considering that I was supposed to release this. Necros was helping me a lot by reassuring and relaxing my body. Poirlion soon finished killing everyone. His whole body was covered in blood, which was these bastards’. Alice whipped his back with a small energy attack to get his attention. He didn’t seem to be sane… He should have gone to a silent place without anyone around and gained enlightenment.

Well, it’s too late to mind it now. Poirlion looked back at Alice with crazed eyes as he charged towards her. He couldn’t use his energy, only his bare strength since Alice deprived him of it. I was finally able to release this attack… I didn’t use the curse because we didn’t intend to kill him. We had to make his mind return. We wouldn’t have a chance against him usually, but when he is so stupid… My attack smashed into his face, which made him flip in the air and fall on his back.

He turned back into his humanoid form with a grunt, but he quickly jumped up. I stood next to Alice as she started using Infinis’ ability, but unexpectedly, Poirlion was still way too quick. We barely perceived him as he jumped at us with his arms opened widely.

“Huh?” Alice let out a surprised voice because behind us was nothing… We were about to fall into the Abyss! I quickly held onto her and used my tail to try holding onto something. It was very dangerous to fall down here as we have noticed it already two times!!! Finally, I was able to find a little hook-like curve in the stone. Alice hugged me tightly, so I was able to release her and catch Poirlion’s hand.

“*Sigh* So much trouble with you! This is why I hate being among friends in a few cases! They can be so bothersome, yet we still need them!” I couldn’t help but start whining. I like having friends and in my opinion, they are a necessity for intelligent beings, but they can cause so much trouble. Well, we are here for him, so he can’t cry in the future! That’s friendship for you… even though he attacked ALICE!? I’m holding onto him, trying to save him.

Of course, I know how he feels about her and that this is all because of his ‘puberty’, but it’s still wrong in a way. He is lucky that I’m an understanding person and that Alice wasn’t hurt… I wouldn’t forgive such a mistake. Alice started looking around while Poirlion started chewing on my scale covered hands… It’s good that his teeth aren’t that strong in his humanoid form. I barely felt anything thanks to my three-layered armor.

“Look, there. Throw him towards there and we can jump there together, after him,” Alice said as she pointed towards a hole on the wall, which was nearby. It was probably a cavern. I nodded as I started swinging my body, along with these two. At such times, I’m happy that these stones were so hard, otherwise, it’d have broken under our weight long ago.

As I’ve gained enough momentum, I released Poirlion. I trusted in myself. I’m not a mortal who would make such mistake as throwing too weakly or too strongly or towards the wrong way. Just as I planned, he landed in the cavern with a thud. We fell at least two kilometers downwards, which meant that getting back up was going to be hard…

“Argh! This is so fucked up!” I raged with a very low voice. I wouldn’t start shouting in such a place. It was so deathly silent and it seemed to be devoid of life, but we all knew better… Since we were already able to at least levitate, we swung ourselves towards the cavern and using my tail, I pulled us towards it. After safely landing, I felt much better. At least we weren’t falling anymore…

As we stopped in front of Poirlion, he started growling. Alice stepped forward and slapped Poirlion’s face with as much strength as she had in her body. Poirlion rotated in the air as he fell on his back with a bloody mouth. That crazed aura suddenly disappeared as he sat up with an unknowing face. He clearly didn’t know where he was, but in a few moments, his face started turning into a despaired one as he started talking with a stuttering voice.

“W- What have I done!? Alice, please-- no, I’m not worthy to call you by your name anymore, her highness--” He put his head on the ground as he continued. “Please forgive me. I- I’m terribly sorry. Thanks to your slap, finally, I overcame my burden. You can punish me as you wish--” He wanted to continue on with his stupid monolog, but Alice stopped him with a small sigh.

“*Sigh* Would you stop? Who cares about such things? I know of its reason, so I don’t mind. You weren’t your own self, so it’s no problem. We are still a family or what, aren’t we?” She said with a small smile as she reached out with her hand towards him to help him up.

“Oh, please don’t cry, I’m weak to crying people…” I said loudly upon seeing that he was about to cry. His lips started trembling, along with his whole body as his eyes started reddening.

“Hey, what are we supposed to do with a crybaby?” Alice questioned me jokingly. Upon hearing her question and good mood, Poirlion’s clouds also turned around and flew the other way. He jumped up from the ground and bowed deeply as he said.

“I thank you very much for not abandoning me, for helping me, and for forgiving me!” Upon hearing his words, we didn’t really know what to say, except that… “Who said that we forgave you? I mean, there was nothing to forgive anyway! Hehe,” Alice finished this conversation with a shit joke. [Hey! I can hear you! I can have bad jokes as well, can’t I? You bastard! Haha~] Alice started cursing me upon hearing my thoughts.

Seeing that we were laughing at ‘nothing’, Poirlion’s mood also turned for the better. Well now… we have finished the exam, but we should get back somehow. “*Sigh* Let’s go, we still have to finish this little exam of ours,” Alice said with a small sigh as she looked around. There were two ways. One down and one up… Naturally, we took the one, which was leading upwards.

After a few twists and turns, we found ourselves in a huge cavern, which was littered with bones of dead monsters. In the middle of it was a big bear, which had black fur, red eyes and it even had horns on its head. Upon sensing us, it looked up, which wasn’t good because it was at the sixth level! We had our Phoenix Medal which means that we would revive once, but that wasn’t the case for Poirlion, so we’d rather not die.

The worst was, that it was a Harbinger! It roared loudly, shaking the whole cavern in the process, but we were already running towards a tunnel on our right. We have to get away as quickly as possible! A Harbinger is almost as powerful as a True Divine Beast when it came to pure strength only, which means that Poirlion wouldn’t have any chance against it either!

Since the tunnel was a small one, the Harbinger had to decrease its body size, which helped us getting a head start. “STOP YOU DAMNED RATS! I’M GOING TO EAT ALL OF YOU!” It shouted madly. Who would stop at such a moment? Idiot… We soon reached another chamber, where we found a formation on the ground, but we didn’t have time to care about such things, so we quickly ran past it.

Exactly at that moment, the bear appeared behind us with a lightning fast speed. All we saw was its paw strike, which was about to crush my head. If I die, Alice goes with me. [*Sigh* Well… we can still come back alive thanks to our little medallion, hehe~ But I’m going to be sad because of Poirlion…] I thought in my mind and Alice was of the same opinion, but unexpectedly, nothing came…

Exactly where the formation laid, a thin blue wall of energy stood. The Harbingers paw was stopped exactly in front of my nose, almost touching the tip of it. The Harbinger simply couldn’t move its paw, past the barrier. I felt truly happy! I stepped back in happiness and a smile slipped onto everyone’s faces. We all jumped up in happiness, while the harbinger kept attacking the barrier, trying to smash it and it didn’t stop its roaring even for a moment.

We didn’t intend to wait for that long… Alice quickly read the runes on the ground and it said that it was an entrance into a sector and that it could be used only once. Since all three of us were next to each other, it probably sensed us as a single use, whilst the harbinger was another one. We walked through a short tunnel and a portal appeared in front of us. Before the portal was a little altar, with a memory crystal on it.

We walked up to it and after touching it, memories flooded into our minds. I couldn’t help but open my mouth widely as I realized the truth behind this portal.

IT WAS LEADING TO THE EARTH!