Chasing Rainbows

[Loop?]

Alice’s POV:

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Turning around, we quickly left the place and went towards the dark hall. The black haired girl was standing over the corpse of a few people. Their bodies were consumed by the ground and we felt a tiny change in the girl’s strength. Did she turn stronger? I haven’t heard of such a True Divine Beast, but she is surely the same kind of creature as we are.

“I suppose you came for the rewards?” With a smile on her face, she questioned us.

“So you know about it. In that case, you are our opponent. Right?” Sticking out my chest, I questioned her. I can’t help but admit that our sizes were probably the same… I can’t lose against this girl! Not in front of my husband!

Hearing my thoughts, Hiro laughed loudly, startling the black haired girl. [Haha~ Don’t tell me such jokes. You don’t have a chance at losing. You couldn’t be any more my type and my love for you isn’t something that is decided by your looks alone. As a realist, I do admit that I love you for your looks as well. That’s a part of being a guy. But I have your heart as well.] Pouring out his heart honestly, he hugged me from behind, making me feel safe.

At this time, Elena looked at us with a slightly envious face. “Yes, I’m your opponent. Although fighting with you would be a lot of fun, but I had a battle just now. So I don’t think that it would be wise,” she said, measuring us up.

Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I replied, “And we are five against two. But I’m in the mood to play. Don’t you want to have a go at it? Just to have some fun~”

Making a surprised face, she nodded nonetheless. All of us swore that we won’t kill each other in the following battle. Going outside, we transformed into our merged monster form, surprising Elena greatly. “Shall we start?” I questioned her with my mind power and she replied with a bow appearing in her hands. Her panther jumped up behind us, ready to strike, but Rin intercepted him and blocked his attack.

Instead of escaping, he turned into a bear and swung his paw towards Rin, who quickly teleported away. We swung our tail towards the bear, but Elena also shot a black arrow towards us, which had the same kind of aura as her. Using our paws, we slapped the black arrow. As it touched our paw, it started dissolving into liquid. Not minding it, we healed it in a second. Her shadow also connected to ours, but we were merged this time.

Our regeneration speed was much quicker than her dissolving ability. Seeing it, her eyes opened widely in surprise. The bear took up our attack but got smashed into the ground as a result. But its thick fur protected it perfectly, leaving it with no visible wound. Using two of our minds, we shot mind attacks towards both of them, but it didn’t have any effect. [Let’s make this funnier,] I thought as I reverted our merged form into our battle form.

We were stronger than Elena in our merged monster form! It was visible from these few attacks. Although we don’t know what kind of tricks she has, but I’m sure that ours aren’t any weaker. Blank turned into a spear in our hands. Grinning, we invited her to the next round. Her bow turned into a spear as well, surprising us slightly.

“A contest of spears, is it?” Hiro said aloud, chuckling. The bear turned into a Basilisk and it flew towards us with incredible speed. Before it could reach us, Rin appeared on its left and slapped it away. We flew towards Elena and made twelve clones of ourselves.

“Nice skill~ Devouring you would be really good,” she said with a smile as she thrust her spear downward and a black light covered her body. As our spear was about to cut off her left arm, she just stood there with a smile. Seeing it, we knew that something was wrong. Blank started melting and being sucked away! Panicked, we quickly pulled it back under our scales.

“Devouring, is it? Interesting ability,” Hiro remarked with a nod of his head. We reorganized the scales on our hands, creating gloves of scales.

“Fistfight? Are you sure? Your body will be affected-” Elena advised us with a provocative smile, but she was interrupted by our fist. Ducking down, she kicked us in the stomach, but our powerful defense was more than enough. Jumping back with a dumbfounded face, she nodded once.

Her devouring had no effect on our scales. We kicked out and jumped towards her head once again. Our fists were filled with Soul Force. As it struck her spear, she was slightly pushed back, surprising her once again.

Breathing out, she spoke. “You are really worthy opponents! You are from a different world, right?” Seeing us nod, she continued. “I suppose you too are some kind of legendary monsters,” looking at the snake who wasn't attacking at the moment, she asked, “Dred, should we show them what our true strength is?”

At that, Dred took the form of a two-dimensional shadow and shook his pointing finger sideways. “Eh? You are no fun. We could fight a good-” seeing his look, she stopped talking. Shrugging once, she spoke before attacking us. “Well, I can’t fight against your merged monster form without my true strength. Anyway, let’s play!”

She threw a huge black ball towards our face. Evading it, she was nowhere to be seen. Instinctually, we turned around and blocked her dagger with our forearm. She flew backward from the kickback. She was much weaker than us since we were in our merged form. But I have no idea what she has in store.

It seems like we will have to work really hard if we want to get that reward! With a roundhouse kick, we struck her side, making her spit out a mouthful of blood on our legs. Suddenly, that shadow appeared behind us and penetrated our back. A black miasma spread in our body, wishing to paralyze us. But that was impossible for numerous reasons… the white pill made us immune to poisons and our race was naturally immune to literally everything.

We coiled our tail around his neck, making him pull out his dagger and quickly jump back. Still, his neck was broken… Unfortunately, it didn’t matter as he started healing. We jumped towards him but our fists went through his body, while Elena appeared behind us and thrust her spear towards our back.

Leaning slightly to the side, it scraped off a few scales on our left side, but nothing more. Turning around, we were quick enough to kick her again. Dred appeared in front of us, surprising us again and thrust his dagger into our heart. We grabbed his arms and used our head to attack.

He fell backward and transforming Blank into a spear, we quickly thrust it through his chest. Elena appeared at that time and swung her sword towards our right side. We held up our right arm where Blank focused its body and transformed into a shield. Her sword glanced off, but before it would hit her, she turned into a shadow and flew backward with Dred in her arms.

Although our spear was out of his chest, our energy wasn’t. After making a grabbing motion, space was destroyed in a small patch and Dred was standing there in his Panther form once again. Rin appeared at that time and would have successfully struck their backs if not for us stopping her.

“Rin! Stop. This was enough, for now,” I shouted upon seeing that her paws were almost touching the back of Elena’s head. Rin was too short on time to stop her paw, so she couldn’t do more than weaken it. Hitting the back of Elena’s head, her soft paws landed on it.

Turning around, Elena raised an eyebrow, asking. “What was this supposed to be? Also, could you let go of my head?”

We chuckled upon hearing her question, while Rin slowly let down her paw. Poirlion and Narihi clapped like some people who were watching a good show. Feeling curious, Hiro asked her. “Why did you not try to evade her attack? I’m sure that you noticed Rin.”

“Nah, it wasn’t needed. Firstly, I knew that she would be able to stop and the most I would get would be a slap on the back of my head. Secondly, she can’t hurt me. But I won’t tell you why, obviously,” Elena explained and then smiled mysteriously.

They are way too calm compared to how they lost. I don’t know what can they do, but I’m quite sure that it would be dangerous for us…

After recovering, we teleported towards our next destination. Although this message said that we need only the black orbs to enter, it wasn’t true as there were other markers on the map. This meant that we had to collect more pieces, I suppose.

Appearing behind us, Elena asked with a smile, “Mind if I join?” I honestly felt freaked out when she was behind me… Furrowing my brows, I replied, “You can, but you can’t stay behind us. Your skills are creepy!”

Laughing at my remark, she teleported beside us every time. Feeling better, we soon reached our next destination. These other points weren’t too far away from each other. A few seconds or minutes are enough to reach them.

Considering that we can teleport a hundred light years away, it’s still quite a lot… Entering the next place, the same record welcomed us, but this time it mentioned the next piece. It was a ring, which was a perfect fit around the black ball. On our way, we found another two such rings, which we had to combine with the black orb.

Combining them, we realized that it looked like an atom. Considering that the rings also started rotating around it, we were quite sure of what were we building. The pieces always appeared in our hands only after watching the video, so there was no way for others to take it.

Finding three tiny balls, we had to put them on the three rings. The completed key shone with a yellow light, like a mini-sun. It looked the same as the sun that exploded and turned into a map before. It was an interesting sight, to say the least. But at the last place, we also met with a bear. He was a True Divine Beast.

He just kept eyeing Elena while we completed our key. From the corners of my eyes, I was looking at them curiously, wishing to see where was this going. Elena was visibly enraged, but she didn’t attack. Clenching her fists and gritting her teeth, she talked.

“I can see that you are healthy… but don’t worry, I’ll help you out as you wished me to before, though my methods might not fit your taste.”

“Hahaha! You’ll be mine anyway! I’ll soon break through and at that time, I’ll make you mine! By the way… how is your friend? Audrey, was it?” Laughing, he transformed into his human form and ridiculed Elena. Hearing the name ‘Audrey’, Elena’s body twitched. After picking up her piece, she looked at us and turned around. The only thing she said, “You’ll be sorry for what you have done.”

I looked at Hiro with my brows raised, not knowing what was going on. Shrugging once, he embraced me and we turned around to leave, with Narihi and Poirlion in tow. They were following us silently all along, like some kind of bodyguards…

“BWAHAHA! What a fine ass! You are just as beautiful as Elena! Don’t you want to play with me? Leave that loser beside you!” The Bear God shouted after me.

“Elena… come back. Today we are killing bears,” I sent my thoughts into her mind. She teleported back with a surprised face. Seeing our dark faces and the bloodlust we released, she grinned happily.

“Hahaha! You idiot bear! I alone couldn’t kill you, but you angered these two as well! You will never reach that tower to wish something because you will die here and now!” Elena exclaimed happily. Turning around, the first thing we did was merge and turn into our monster form.

“W-What the fuck are you!? Hey, guys! Come and help me out!” He shouted surprised and a few bearmen at the sixth level appeared.

Elena looked at us, saying, “This is why I couldn’t kill him alone with Dred. If not for his blood servant entourage, I could have killed him long ago!”

There were five of them, making me understand her problem. But Narihi and Poirlion were here and they were stronger than these bearmen, not to mention their bond. This shit was dead as fuck. [Enough of talking. He said something he shouldn’t have. Feel my anger, Alice. Feel it and let’s destroy this shit!] Hiro shouted in his mind, as a powerful wave of bloodlust, hate, and wrath spread through our body. Since we were fused, my soul turned just as enraged.

This dirty furry shit dared to say such things to me? He will learn when to stay silent. I thought, earning a remark from Hiro, [Right. He will stay silent eternally.]

We felt the wrath and we wished to crush him with our paws! We jumped towards him and struck his chest, making him fly through the air and crash into the wall. Elena appeared in front of him and stomped on his face, reorganizing it as a result. Roaring, he transformed into his monster form, while his servants also appeared behind us. Their attacks were shrugged off by us, while Narihi and Poirlion focused on one of them, almost killing him.

Dred and Rin also attacked the same person. Dred was in his bear form and attacked frontally, while Rin attacked his back. The guy was shredded into pieces. Now it was four against four plus we and Elena against the boss bear… he was so dead. Feeling threatened, he slinked backward, growling.

Hitting his butt into a corner, he stood up on all fours. Elena disappeared and reached out of the shadow of the Bear God, thrusting a sword through his back. We slapped him in the face with our tail, leaving a large gash on it. His real forte was defense and strength. He didn’t have exceptional regeneration like us. Worse for him was that we could regenerate and our defense wasn’t any weaker than his.

Roaring, he jumped towards us and swiped with his paw. With the same movement, we blocked his attack and using our pointy tail, we struck his chest. His thick fur was strong enough to protect him as we had to attack from a really weird angle.

Our friends were really quick as all of them killed their opponents by this time. Surrounding the bear god, he kept growling while looking around. Roaring out, his body enlarged, turning five meters tall. This was his racial ability, called Enrage. Burning his own blood, he gained strength and defense above the norm. Jumping towards us, he believed in his success, forgetting that we weren’t in our simple monster forms. We were merged!

Our paws met this time as well, and he still couldn’t push us back. Using our mouths, we bit into his throat, shoulders, and the sides of his head. He roared out in pain and jumped back to escape, but Elena and Dred were waiting for him. A black arrow penetrated his back and his body started rotting and melting.

Narihi and Poirlion just stood in the back as this battle was a result of our wrath we had to ease by murdering this shit. We were more against one. But we didn’t care. We would have killed him anyway, even if we were alone. No True Divine Beast can fight us! We were one step above them even if they were the same as us because we always had something.

Something that was more than simple strength. And that was our bond, unconditional love, and trust in each other, which couldn’t be understood by these simple, strength seeking cultivators. They were super strong. They looked like gods in front of the mortals, but almost all of them lacked the simplest piece.

How to live.

But this one will never learn it. Not in this life. We used our paws to stop him in place. Space Lock was up all this time, so teleporting was impossible, to begin with. We chewed up his head, leaving only the tip of his spine, sticking out of his body. Using our tail, we penetrated his stomach, while we did the same with our paws on his upper body. With our body covered in blood, we tore the huge bear into two halves.

He tried to resist but our strength was still superior. “Your attempt to save your life is futile. You should have never made that remark. I can only hope that you will learn to live in your next life,” I told him as we unleashed the most powerful soul attack we did up to date. His soul shattered and his body exploded, leaving only mincemeat.

The chunks of meat, blood and bone fragments flew through Elena’s shady body, splashing on the walls. Sniffing, all of us felt excited and happy. Our enemy was gone and dead. Using Soul Eater, we devoured his soul, stepping into the fourth stage instantly. This wasn’t a simple soul as this was the soul of a True Divine Beast!

We were surprised to see that Elena’s shadow took the shape of a star and spread out. Devouring the body pieces on the ground, her body also started evolving and her strength increased, stopping at the same level as us. Separating and turning back into our human forms, we looked at her with furrowed brows, while she was doing the same.

“You are interesting creatures…” All four of us said at the same time. We were even more surprised that Dred talked… Chuckling, we turned around and flew towards our final destination. The chance to reach our goal wasn’t that far away. Once we have the ability to find people’s other halves, we will start building our kingdom.

Although it will be a long process as we needed people who were interested in it, we still wished to do it. We didn’t want to change the whole universe. Our aim were those people who were ‘living’ a life, not just chasing rainbows and infinite strength. Although reaching ‘great strength’ was our goal as well, it was nothing more than a ‘side effect’ to sate our hunger for knowledge.

The novel Hiro wrote in his past life was similar to how we wished to do this. We didn’t want to share this with everyone. Only with those who thought alike or at least were able to think alike.

“I’ve heard him saying something about ‘Audrey’. What did happen to her?” I questioned Elena in my curiosity. Her face turned sad as a result, but she answered nonetheless.

“She was… killed by this shit. She was my best friend since my childhood. That is the reason why I’m chasing this wish of mine. I’ll return her to the living. No matter what. And you can’t stop me, even if you helped me this time,” pointing at us, she finished her sentence.

Rose, who has been observing everything before, left our world to talk. “Shouldn’t you fight her now? I mean… she is really strong as I noticed it. You have more chance to win now. Although you aren’t like that, if you want to reach your goal, you should stop now…”

Hearing her words, we furrowed our brows, but what she said was true. I felt torn because Elena seemed like a ‘good’ person unless being provoked. Just like us… Maybe she could also be a part of our kingdom in the future.

Turning around, she laughed, “Hahaha, I don’t know who are you, but you are terribly wrong if you think that I’m at a disadvantage because-” as she finished turning around, she saw Rose. Her eyes opened widely, along with her mouth as her hands started shaking.

Stuttering, she pointed at Rose, saying, “A-Audrey!? What the fuck!? How are you alive and why are you with them?!”

Raising a brow, Rose looked at Elena with a strange look, replying, “What Audrey? I’m called Rose. I know these two for a long time, but I’ve never seen you before…”

“B-But you look the same as my friend, Audrey! She was killed by this stupid bear!” Elena shouted, still stuttering as a few tears left her eyes.

Sitting on the dust covered table behind us, we observed what was going to happen. Elena appeared in front of Rose and touched her face. Rose stepped back, feeling slightly surprised. Touching her face again, Elena mumbled, “You aren’t her. You have a different evolution path. But otherwise, you are completely the same. And you are a weaker than her as well. For now… I guess. What the hell did you give this girl to have such a powerful bloodline? She is as powerful as a normal True Divine Beast….” looking at us, she questioned.

Shrugging, I told her that Rose drank our mixed blood. Suddenly, Hiro started laughing, startling everyone.

“Hahaha! Is it happening even now? Are we living in a dream or what? Chasing fucking rainbows? I can’t believe that our lives are just loops which can’t be escaped.”

Frowning, Elena asked what he meant. He told her what were his thoughts. In his past life, he felt way too many times that the things he did have happened already. Be it in his dreams or in reality. Both happened in way too many cases.

He didn’t believe in dreamworlds. He knew the difference between reality and fiction. But there was still that lingering feeling in him, telling him that maybe people’s lives were just stupid programs, set in stone. That when they slept, sometimes they dreamed of their future, which also turned true.

That the same things happened in their lives, numerous times. Without anything different. There were no variants in those ‘Deja Vu’ feelings and moments. Now, people had clones, which only made him laugh at this whole world. The god of the Abyss is playing pranks on people? Are our lives its doing? But… in that case, isn’t it playing a one-player game?

We really have to find out what lies beyond the end or we will die of curiosity. Understanding Hiro’s words, Elena chuckled, saying, “It happened to me as well… I will suppose that everyone has numerous selves out there in these universes. Maybe there is another me, who thinks and looks alike. Rose and Audrey are those kinds of people. Probably…”

Chuckling, Hiro replied. “Maybe… But I have one problem. Am I supposed to kill you to reach our goal?” Smiling, Elena answered. “Unless you can bring the dead back to life, yes.”

”You will have to….”

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A note from me to my readers. If you liked the prolog, read this.

(AN: The latter half might be weird or strange to some of you, but I wished to give myself through the novel. Like most of the time. It is truly strange. But nowadays… as I keep writing, it occurs to me at a few times, that I have dreamed of the moment I finished writing a given paragraph. For example, in the 92nd chapter, I finished writing a paragraph when I just looked at the line. It just came to me. I have dreamed of that exact line before. It was just a hazy dream, but it was still there. Looking up, I saw that the lines above were matching.

But that knowledge quickly dissolved, leaving me with an out of body feeling after it happened. And this wasn’t the first time. Nowadays, it keeps happening to me more often. Such being the case, I wished to add this piece to my novel from the start. Now the start of this question is here as well.

It’s truly strange. I’m really curious about what is beyond our lives. Not about reincarnation, heaven, and those things, or my next life. Just the piece in between. See the end to find out what is there in this fiction! What gave me the idea for the title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMH6Bnnew4&index=16&list=WL Although the meaning here is completely different, it still gave me inspiration. I also feel like I’m chasing rainbows while writing this novel. But it’s interesting in its own way, isn’t it? Quirks of life… I shall see what does it hold in store for me. Don’t you want to find your own rainbow?)